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THE   MEANING   OF   EDUCATION 

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A   PHILOSOPHY   OF   EDUCATION 


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THE 
MEANING  OF  EDUCATION 

CONTRIBUTIONS   TO 
A  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 


BY 

NICHOLAS    MURRAY    BUTLER 

PRESIDENT  OF  COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY 
MEMBER  OF  THE  AMERICAN  ACADEMY  OF  ARTS  AND   LETTERS 


REVISED    AND    ENLARGED    EDITION 


NEW  YORK 
CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS 

1917 


Copyright,  -1915,  by 
CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS 


Published  November,  1915 


LB 

B37 
1915 


TO  ALL  THOSE  MEMBERS  OF  COLUMBIA 
UNIVERSITY,  PAST  AND  PRESENT,  WHO 
HAVE  AIDED  IN  MAKING  IT  A  CENTRE  OF 
ENLIGHTENMENT,  OF  PRODUCTIVE  SCHOL- 
ARSHIP AND  OF  HUMAN  SERVICE  AND  WHO 
IN  SO  DOING  HAVE  MADE  PLAIN  THE  MEAN- 
ING   OF    EDUCATION    IN   A    DEMOCRACY 


* 


PUBLISHER'S   NOTE 

In  the  present  revised  and  enlarged  edition 
of  The  Meaning  of  Education,  two  chapters  that 
were  included  in  the  former  edition  (1898) 
are  omitted:  "Democracy  and  Education" 
and  "The  Reform  of  Secondary  Education  in 
the  United  States." 

The  following  chapters,  which  did  not  ap- 
pear in  the  former  edition,  are  included  in  the 
revised  and  enlarged  edition:  "Five  Evidences 
of  an  Education";  "Training  for  Vocation  and 
for  Avocation";  "Standards";  "Waste  in 
Education";  "The  Conduct  of  the  Kindergar- 
ten"; "Religious  Instruction  and  Its  Relation 
to  Education";  "The  Scope  and  Function  of 
Secondary  Education";  "The  Secondary  School 
Programme";  "The  American  College  and  the 
American  University";  "The  Place  of  Come- 
nius  in  the  History  of  Education";  "Status  of 
Education  at  the  Close  of  the  Nineteenth  Cen- 
tury"; "Some  Fundamental  Principles  of  Amer- 
ican Education";  "Education  in  the  United 
States";  "Discipline  and  the  Social  Aim  in 
Education." 


ANALYTICAL  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 


PAGE 


I  Introduction i 

Fundamental  assumptions — Distinction  between  edu- 
cation and  instruction — The  doctrine  of  infancy — Will  as 
the  fundamental  form  of  the  life  of  mind — Study  of  edu- 
cation as  a  science — Education  and  philosophy — Human 
personality  and  educational  theory. 

II  The  Meaning  of  Education     ...       n 

Relation  of  evolution  to  education — Significance  of  the 
lengthening  period  of  infancy — Relation  of  infancy  to 
education — Infancy  as  a  factor  in  the  development  of  the 
family  and  of  society — The  lengthening  period  of  infancy — 
Education  as  adjustment  to  environment — The  spiritual 
inheritance  of  the  child — What  is  education? — The  scien- 
tific inheritance — The  literary  inheritance — The  aesthetic 
inheritance — The  institutional  inheritance — The  religious 
inheritance — Infancy  and  education — The  meaning  of 
culture. 

III  What  Knowledge  is  of  Most  Worth  ?      43 

The  complex  modern  world — Hegel  and  Herbert  Spen- 
cer— The  primacy  of  reflective  thought — Philosophy  and 
education — Standards  of  value  in  knowledge — Knowl- 
edge of  the  things  of  the  spirit — Humanism — Humanism 
and  science — Science  as  one  of  the  humanities — Two  as- 
pects of  education — The  higher  utilities — Professor  Tyn- 
dall  on  science — Character  and  the  moral  order — Educa- 
tion as  spiritual  growth. 

IV  Is  There  a  New  Education?  ...       71 

Evolution  and  education — Study  of  education  as  a 
science — The  physiological  aspect — The  psychological 
aspect — Limitations  of  experience  in  teaching — The  doc- 


x  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

trines  of  Herbart:  apperception  and  interest — The 
sociological  aspect — Barrier  between  secondary  school 
and  college — The  broadening  of  the  course  of  study — 
Attitude  of  teachers  toward  the  scientific  study  of  edu- 
cation. 


V     Five  Evidences  of  an  Education  .      .       97 

Who  is  the  educated  man? — The  quantitative  ideal — 
The  fivefold  spiritual  inheritance — Correctness  and  pre- 
cision in  the  use  of  the  mother  tongue — Refined  and  gentle 
manners — The  habit  of  reflection — The  power  to  grow — 
The  power  to  do — Five  characteristics  of  the  educated 


VI  Training  for  Vocation  and  for  Avoca- 

tion      117 

Labor  and  leisure — Hand  and  eye  training — Vocational 
training  follows  elementary  instruction — Special  voca- 
tional schools — Vocational  training  and  liberal  learn- 
ing— The  Oxford  training — Discipline  and  self-discipline. 

VII  Standards 131 

Importance  of  the  individual — The  setting  of  stand- 
ards— Standards  of  personal  conduct — Bad  habits  of 
speech — Lincoln's  English — Newspaper  English — Influ- 
ence of  surroundings  on  standards — Selfishness  versus 
standards — Self-mastery — Self-improvement. 

VIII  Waste  in  Education 149 

Rigid  system  a  cause  of  waste — How  to  plan  a  child's 
education — The  system  for  the  child,  not  the  child  for 
the  system — Thoroughness — Bad  teaching — Differences 
between  children — Poor  educational  literature. 


IX     The  Conduct  of  the  Kindergarten     .     163 

Froebel  and  Hegel — Is  the  kindergarten  too  formal? — 
The  kindergarten  not  a  separate  institution — The  kinder- 
garten and  the  home — The  kindergarten  and  discipline. 


CONTENTS  xi 

PAGE 

X  Religious  Instruction  and  Its  Rela- 

tion to  Education 177 

Education  part  of  the  life  process — Study  of  the  en- 
vironment— Religious  training  essential  to  education — 
Forces  separating  religious  training  from  education — Is 
the  Bible  a  sectarian  book? — The  secular  schools  of  France 
• — Limitations  of  the  secularized  school— The  family  and 
the  church  as  educational  agencies — Religious  belief  uni- 
versal— Moral  and  civic  instruction  no  substitute  for 
religious  teaching — Opportunity  of  the  Sunday-school — 
Effects  of  ignorance  of  the  Bible — The  appeal  to  the  hu- 
man heart. 

XI  The  Scope  and  Function  of  Secondary 

Education 201 

Extent  of  secondary  instruction — What  is  secondary 
education? — The  secondary  school  programme  of  study — 
Characteristics  of  adolescence — Characteristics  of  second- 
ary-school studies — Passage  from  elementary  to  secondary 
instruction — Disciplinary  and  selective  functions  of  sec- 
ondary instruction — Passage  from  secondary  school  to  col- 
lege—Overcrowded school  programmes — Purpose  of  flex- 
ible and  elective  courses. 

XII  The  Secondary  School  Programme   227 

Threefold  division  of  instruction — Field  of  secondary 
education — Effect  of  college  admission  examinations — 
Waste  in  education — Need  of  better-trained  secondary 
teachers — Aim  of  secondary  instruction — Secondary- 
school  programmes  of  study — English — Geography  and 
History — Mathematics — Natural  science — Latin  and 
Greek — French  and  German — Drawing  and  construc- 
tive work — Physical  training — The  secondary  school  and 
life. 

XIII  The    American    College    and   the 

American  University    ....     259 

Distinction  between  college  and  university — Are  there 
American  universities  ? — Definition  of  a  university — 
The  American  college — The  college  population — The  col- 
lege programme  of  study — Higher  education  in  America 


xii  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

and  in  Germany — Teaching  and  research — The  technical 
school  in  the  university — Schools  of  applied  sciences- 
Schools  of  law  and  of  medicine — The  unity  of  the  true  uni- 
versity— Excessive  specialization  a  danger. 

XIV.  The  Place  of  Comenius  in  the  His- 

tory of  Education 281 

Comenius — State  of  Europe  in  1592 — Educational  aim 
of  Comenius — His  teachers — Comenius  an  exile — The 
Pansophia — Comenius  and  Milton — In  Sweden  and  in 
Hungary — The  dream  of  Comenius — Comenius  as  fore- 
runner of  modern  ideas — Comenius  and  Locke — Rous- 
seau— Pestalozzi — Froebel — Comenius  and  the  modern 
movement  in  education. 

XV.  Status  of  Education  at  the  Close  of 

the  Nineteenth  Century   .      .      .     297 

The  centuries — The  nineteenth  century — Develop- 
ment of  the  importance  of  the  individual — Growth  of 
emphasis  on  the  individual  in  educational  theory — The 
new  spirit  of  freedom — Excesses  of  individualism — The 
individual  and  institutions  of  civilization — Influence  of 
the  doctrine  of  evolution — The  logical  and  the  psycho- 
logical order — Evolution  and  individualism — New  im- 
portance of  education  as  a  government  function. 

XVI.  Some    Fundamental    Principles    of 

American  Education      .      .      .      .319 

American  education  not  exclusively  a  government 
function — Public  character  of  non-tax-supported  educa- 
tion— Government  and  liberty — The  three  types  of  Amer- 
ican educational  institution — National  institutions  not 
necessarily  governmental — Scope  of  tax-supported  educa- 
tion— Tax-supported  education  as  public  service — Daniel 
Webster  on  taxation  for  public  instruction — Three  funda- 
mental principles  of  American  education. 

XVII.  Education  in  the  United  States     .     343 

National  government  and  education — Education  a 
State  function — Statistics  of  public  education — Illit- 
eracy— Education  and  crime — Education  and  industry — 


CONTENTS  xiii 


Public  secondary  education — Local  influence  of  the  col- 
lege— American  universities — Literature  of  education — 
Private  aid  to  education — Study  of  education. 

XVIII.     Discipline  and  the  Social  Aim  of 

Education 365 

Training  implies  purpose — Form  of  training  determined 
by  one's  philosophy  of  life — The  common  school  a  prod- 
uct of  democracy — Discipline  and  democracy — The  des- 
potism of  a  majority — Individualism,  collectivism,  and  in- 
stitutionalism — Discipline  and  personality — Democracy 
and  efficiency — Education  and  the  ideal  state. 

Index 379 


I 

INTRODUCTION 


INTRODUCTION 

There  are  two  ways  of  presenting  a  reasoned 
view  of  the  principles  and  practise  of  educa- 
tion. One  way  is  to  treat  the  whole  field  of 
educational  theory  and  practise  in  highly  sys- 
tematic and  logical  form.  The  other  and  less 
formal  way  is  to  present  the  underlying  prin- 
ciples of  an  educational  philosophy,  and  then 
to  apply  these  principles  to  various  practical 
educational  and  social  problems  which  have 
present  interest  and  importance.  It  is  this 
second  way  that  has  been  followed  in  the  pres- 
ent instance.  The  foundations  of  an  educa- 
tional philosophy  are  first  suggested,  and  then 
in  different  ways  and  from  various  points  of 
view  application  of  this  philosophy  is  made  to 
a  number  of  questions  which  constantly  arise 
in  the  life  of  the  individual,  of  the  school,  and 
of  the  community. 

An  empirical  education  is  futile.  The  only 
education  that  can  serve  the  state  and  enrich 
the  life  of  the  individual  and  the  family  is  one 
which  rests  upon  a  reasoned  and  tested  founda- 
tion of  principle,  and  which  proceeds  toward  a 

3 


INTRODUCTION 


Fundamental 
assumptions 


Distinction 
between 
education  and 
instruction 


clearly  defined  and  well-understood  aim.  A 
sound  education  rests  upon  a  sound  philos- 
ophy. 

The  convictions  and  opinions  on  the  subject 
of  education  that  are  brought  together  in  this 
volume  are  the  result  of  many  years  of  reflec- 
tion, experience,  and  observation.  Time  has 
only  served  to  strengthen  the  belief  that  they 
are  sound  and  capable  of  reasonable  defense 
and  explanation. 

The  belief  that  controls  these  convictions  and 
opinions  is  threefold:  First,  that  education,  in 
the  broad  sense  in  which  the  term  is  here  used, 
is  the  most  important  of  human  interests,  since 
it  deals  with  the  preservation  of  the  culture 
and  efficiency  that  we  have  inherited  and  with 
their  extension  and  development;  second,  that 
this  human  interest  can  and  should  be  studied 
in  a  scientific  spirit  and  by  a  scientific  method; 
and,  third,  that  in  a  democracy  at  least  an 
education  is  a  failure  that  does  not  relate  it- 
self to  the  duties  and  opportunities  of  citizen- 
ship, with  all  that  that  term  implies. 

Education  is  sharply  distinguished,  there- 
fore, from  the  far  narrower  field  of  instruction, 
as  that  in  turn  is  broader  than  the  field  of 
school  life.  To  give  to  education  its  rightful 
place  in  our  thinking  involves  relating  it  to  the 


INTRODUCTION  5 

laws  of  life  in  general,  and  especially  to  those  The  doctrine 
laws  as  viewed  from  the  standpoint  of  the  doc-  of  mfancy 
trine  of  evolution.  This  I  have  aimed  to  do 
by  proposing  an  extension  of  the  commonly 
received  doctrine  of  infancy,  which  though  as 
old  as  early  Greek  philosophy,1  owes  its  defi- 
nite statement  and  exemplification  to  Mr.  John 
Fiske.2  In  this  way  the  theory  of  education  is 
given  what  it  has  hitherto  lacked,  a  distinct 
relationship  to  the  facts  of  organic  and  social 
evolution. 

A  standard  must  next  be  sought  by  which  wm  as  the 
the  value  of  educational  processes   and  influ-  |unda™e°tal 

r  form  of  the 

ences  may  be  judged.  I  find  this  standard  in  life  of  mind 
the  conclusion,  common,  I  am  confident,  to  the 
best  philosophy  and  to  the  soundest  science 
alike,  that  the  facts  of  nature  must  be  ex- 
plained, in  the  last  resort,  in  terms  of  energj'-, 
and  that  energy  in  turn  can  be  conceived  only 
in  terms  of  will,  which  is  the  fundamental 
form  of  the  life  of  mind  or  spirit. 

These^two  conclusions  are  offered  as  the  basis 
for  an  educational  philosophy.  With  them  in 
mind  a  number  of  concrete  problems  that  are 
of  present  importance  not  to  teachers   alone, 

1  Butler,  "Anaximander  on  the  Prolongation  of  Infancy  in 
Man,"  in  Classical  Studies  in  Honor  of  Henry  Drisler  (New  York, 
Columbia  University  Press,  1894). 

2  See  The  Meaning  of  Infancy  (Boston,  1909). 


6  INTRODUCTION 

but  to  thoughtful  parents  and  to  conscientious 
citizens,  are  discussed  in  detail. 

It  is  sometimes  hastily  objected  that  the  at- 
tempt to  formulate  a  scientific  study  of  educa- 
tion is  impossible.  This  objection  rests  upon 
a  misunderstanding  as  to  what  a  science  is. 
Science  is  wholly  a  matter  of  method;  it  is 
knowledge  classified,  and  nothing  more.  The 
knowledge  so  classified  may  be  knowledge  of 
plants,  or  of  heavenly  bodies,  or  of  the  human 
body,  or  of  forms  of  government,  or  of  educa- 
tion, or  of  anything  else  in  the  known  world 
of  relations  and  related  objects.  Only  the  sci- 
ences based  upon  mathematics  are  exact  or  lay 
claim  to  exactness;  all  others  are  descriptive 
only,  and  wider  experience  or  further  observa- 
tion may  modify  their  conclusions  at  any  time. 
A  science  of  education  is  analogous  to  a  science 
of  medicine.  Both  are  built  upon  a  group  of 
ancillary  sciences,  and  both  arrive  at  conclu- 
sions that  are  only  working  hypotheses.  With 
normal  children,  as  with  normal  patients,  these 
hypotheses,  based  as  they  are  upon  wide  ex- 
perience, require  little  or  no  modification;  in 
abnormal  cases,  however,  they  must  be  modi- 
fied or  sometimes  even  abandoned.  Neither 
medicine  nor  education  makes  any  pretense  to 
exactness. 


INTRODUCTION  7 

It  is  highly  important  for  the  study  of  educa- 
tion that  a  consistent  nomenclature  be  adopted 
and  used,  though  for  a  variety  of  reasons  this 
is  a  difficult  task  to  accomplish.  Bearing  in 
mind  this  need,  I  have  endeavored  to  mark  off 
different  types  or  grades  of  educational  insti- 
tutions from  each  other,  and  to  give  to  each  its 
appropriate  name.  Many  American  educa- 
tional problems  that  appear  very  complex 
would  become  much  simpler  if  the  various  in- 
stitutions giving  systematic  instruction  were 
always  called  each  by  its  right  name. 

The  serious  student  of  education  must,  as  Education 
has  already  been  indicated,  be  a  serious  stu-  ^osophj 
dent  of  philosophy  as  well.  In  America,  phi- 
losophy has  been  for  some  time  past  in  a  par- 
lous state.  A  generation  arose  that  knew  not 
philosophy,  but  that  was  very  desirous  of  con- 
tinuing to  use  the  name.  In  various  forms  and 
with  varying  degrees  of  vigor,  philosophy  has 
been  repudiated  in  quasi-philosophical  language. 
The  intellectual  sincerity  of  the  expounders  of 
what  is  called  Pragmatism  has  diverted  atten- 
tion from  the  fact  that  Pragmatism  is  not  a 
philosophy  at  all,  but  rather  a  denial  that 
philosophy  can  exist.  With  the  title  of  the 
New  Realism,  a  group  of  younger  writers  and 
teachers  has  thought  it  worth  while  to  repeat 


8 


INTRODUCTION 


with  no  little  ingenuity,  and  to  endeavor  to 
perpetuate,  some  of  the  oldest  and  most  thor- 
oughly exposed  of  philosophical  errors.  Both 
these  movements  are  revivals  of  that  dogma- 
tism in  philosophy  which  it  was  hoped  had 
been  put  to  rest  forever  by  the  criticism  of 
Kant.  Whenever  a  philosophical  writer  or 
teacher  attempts  to  build  up  a  system  of  phi- 
losophy without  a  foundation  which  rests  upon 
a  critical  analysis  of  the  process  of  knowing — 
what  the  Germans  call  Erkenntnisstheorie — it 
may  be  assumed  at  once  that  he  is  not  con- 
tributing to  philosophy,  but  rather  attacking  it 
with  the  weapons  of  dogmatism.  Similarly,  all 
undertakings  that  have  for  their  purpose  the 
application  of  scientific  method  to  philosophy 
are  themselves  proof  that  the  gulf  which  sepa- 
rates science  and  philosophy  is  neither  under- 
stood nor  measured.1  To  speak  of  extending 
scientific  method  to  philosophy  is  just  as  little 
intelligible  as  it  would  be  to  speak  of  extending 
the  metric  system  to  political  theory. 

The  dignity  and  worth  of  human  personality 
lie  at  the  basis  of  all  constructive  theories  of 
education,  as  they  lie  at  the  basis  of  all  con- 
structive theories  of  social  and  political  organi- 


1  See   Butler,  Philosophy   (Columbia  University  Press,  1911), 
pp.  12-24. 


INTRODUCTION  9 

zation  and  action.  The  development,  the  pro- 
tection, and  the  enrichment  of  human  personal- 
ities are  alike  the  purpose  of  education  and  of 
those  larger  relationships  and  interdependences 
which  constitute  the  state. 

In  a  very  real  sense,  formal  education  may 
be  described  as  the  process  by  which  the  pres-  i 

ent  uses  the  lessons  and  the  experience  of  the 
past  to  aid  in  meeting  the  needs  and  solving 
the  problems  of  the  immediate  future.  Edu- 
cation is  by  its  very  nature  forward-facing.  It 
aims  to  prepare  human  beings  for  life.  The 
measure  of  its  success  will  always  be  the  under- 
standing which  it  has  of  the  terms,  human 
being  and  life. 

Nicholas  Murray  Butler 


Columbia  University,  New  York, 
November  25,  1915 


II 

THE  MEANING  OF  EDUCATION 


An  address  before  the  Liberal  Club  of  Buffalo,  New  York, 
November  19,  1896 


THE  MEANING  OF  EDUCATION 

Those  who  have  an  acquaintance,  however 
cursory,  with  the  history  of  human  thought 
well  remember  how  bitter  and  how  persistent 
have  been  the  controversies  of  philosophers  and 
metaphysicians  in  respect  to  terms  of  every-day 
use.  Discussions  on  such  familiar  words  as 
substance,  cause,  idea,  and  matter  have  shaken 
the  schools  for  ages.  It  seems  to  be  a  fact  that 
when  a  term  is  somewhat  unusual  and  remote 
from  our  experience  and  our  interest,  we  are 
apt  readily  to  be  able  to  assign  to  it  a  definite 
significance  and  a  concrete  meaning;  but  when 
it  is  a  term  with  which  we  are  familiar  in  our 
every-day  experience  and  conversation,  we  often 
feel  its  significance  and  its  import,  and  yet  find 
great  difficulty  in  defining  it  accurately  in 
logical  or  in  scientific  terms. 

I  shall  discuss  the  meaning  of  Infancy  and  Relation  of 

t-,  ,  i  i  r        •  l  •  evolution  to 

Education  just  because  the  terms  are  familiar,  education 
because  the  ideas  are  commonplace,   and  be- 
cause, as  it  seems  to  me,  we  so  often  fail  to 
grasp  their  profound  and   far-reaching  signifi- 
cance.    The  point  of  view  from  which  I  shall 


14 


THE  MEANING  OF  EDUCATION 


Significance 
of  the 

lengthening 
period  of 
infancy 


speak  of  them  is  the  one  given  us  by  that  re- 
markable generalization  which  has  come  to  be 
known  as  the  doctrine  of  evolution,  a  theory 
which  we  all  associate  with  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury, but  which,  nevertheless,  was  seen  by  the 
thinkers  of  the  ancient  world,  by  the  lightning 
flashes  of  their  genius,  in  what  is  after  all  very 
much  the  form  in  which  the  clear  sunlight  of 
modern  scientific  demonstration  presents  it  to 
us.  The  doctrine  of  evolution  has  illuminated 
every  problem  of  human  thought  and  human 
action.  It  is  a  mere  truism  to  say  that  it  has 
revolutionized  our  thinking;  but  it  is  equally 
true  that  we  have  in  very  many  cases  failed  to 
accept  the  consequences  of  the  revolution  and 
to  understand  them  in  all  their  important  ap- 
plications. It  seems  to  me  that  in  no  depart- 
ment of  our  interest  and  activity  is  this  failure 
more  complete,  speaking  generally,  than  in  that 
which  relates  to  the  great  human  institution  of 
education. 

The  two  chief  contributions  that  light  up 
this  doctrine  from  the  point  of  view  that  I  wish 
to  occupy  are  those  that  were  made  by  Mr. 
Alfred  Russell  Wallace  and  by  Mr.  John 
Fiske.     It  was  Mr.  Wallace  who  pointed  out,1 

1  See  Natural  Selection  and  Tropical  Nature  (London,  1891), 
pp.  167-214. 


THE  MEANING  OF  EDUCATION         15 

forty  odd  years  ago,  that  the  theory  of  evolu- 
tion as  applied  to  man  could  sustain  itself  only 
if  it  were  acknowledged  and  admitted  that 
there  came  a  time  in  the  history  of  animal 
types  and  forms  when  natural  selection  seized 
upon  psychical  or  mental  peculiarities  and  ad- 
vantages and  perpetuated  them  rather  than 
merely  physical  peculiarities  and  advantages. 
That  is  the  first  and  in  a  sense,  perhaps,  the 
greater  of  these  contributions,  for  it  has  enabled 
us  to  understand  the  place  of  man  in  the  order 
of  the  cosmos.  Then,  in  less  than  a  generation, 
the  remarkable  insight  of  Mr.  John  Fiske  ex- 
plained for  us  on  physiological  and  psycho- 
logical grounds  the  part  played  by  the  length- 
ening period  of  infancy  in  the  animal  species.1 
It  is  from  that  doctrine  of  Mr.  Fiske  that  I 
take  my  point  of  departure  in  the  present  argu- 
ment. 

We  have  come  to  understand  that  evolution 
regards  us  all  as  individual  centres  of  activity, 
influenced  by  our  surroundings  and  reacting 
upon  them.  We  have  come  to  understand  that 
our  physical,  our  mental,  and  our  moral  life  is 
the  gradual  growth  or  development  of  what 
may  be  conceived  of  as  a  point  travelling 
through  an  ever-widening  series  of  circles,  un- 

1  Sec  The  Meaning  of  Infancy  (Boston,  1909). 


16         THE  MEANING  OF  EDUCATION 

til,  in  this  ripe  and  cultivated  age,  the  point  has 
come  to  include  within  the  circumference  that 
it  traces  all  that  we  call  the  knowledge  or  ac- 
quirement or  culture  of  the  educated  man. 

The  doctrine  of  infancy,  as  it  has  been  ex- 
plained to  us,  relates  itself  directly  to  that  fig- 
ure and  to  that  method  of  explanation.  If  we 
contrast  or  compare  the  lower  orders  of  animal 
life  with  the  higher,  and  particularly  with  the 
human  species,  we  are  at  once  struck  by  the 
fact  that  in  the  lower  orders  of  existence  there 
is  no  such  thing  as  infancy.  We  observe  that 
the  young  are  brought  into  the  world  able  to 
take  care  of  themselves,  to  react  upon  their 
environment  at  the  mere  contact  of  air  or  food, 
to  breathe,  to  digest,  and  to  live  an  individual 
existence.  We  are  further  struck  by  the  fact, 
on  examining  the  structure  of  animals  of  that 
kind,  that  there  is  no  nervous  system  or  or- 
ganization present,  except  such  as  is  necessary 
to  carry  on  what  are  called  reflex  actions. 
There  is  no  central  storage  warehouse;  there 
is  nothing  corresponding  to  the  human  brain; 
and  there  is  no  action  possible  for  animals  of 
that  type  in  which  any  considerable  time  can 
elapse  between  the  impulse  which  comes  in 
from  the  world  without  and  the  responding  or 
reacting  movement  or  action  on  the  part  of  the 


THE  MEANING  OF  EDUCATION         17 

animal  itself.  Each  of  those  animals  lives  the 
life  of  its  parents.  Each  of  those  animals, 
young  and  old  alike,  performs  certain  reflex 
actions  with  accuracy,  with  sureness,  with 
despatch;  no  one  of  those  animals  progresses, 
and  none  develops  or  has  a  history.  When  we 
pass  to  animals  of  a  higher  order,  however, 
there  comes  a  time  when  our  attention  is  at- 
tracted by  those  that  act  in  an  entirely  different 
way.  Their  actions  are  more  complex,  more 
numerous,  more  subtle,  more  sustained;  and, 
on  turning  again  to  the  organism  that  accom- 
panies this  and  makes  it  possible,  we  see  at 
once  that  there  is  an  increased  complexity  of 
structure  which  accompanies  this  increasing 
complexity  of  function.  We  find,  as  we  study 
more  highly  organized  types  of  animal  exist- 
ence, that,  sooner  or  later,  there  comes  a  time 
when  the  offspring  of  a  given  animal  comes  into 
the  world  unable  to  perform  many  of  the  func- 
tions that  become  possible  for  it  later.  It 
brings  with  it  a  host  of  developed  reflex  actions, 
but  it  also  brings  with  it  many  undeveloped 
potentialities.  Its  organization  is  not  complete 
at  the  moment  of  birth;  and  a  period  of  help- 
lessness or  infancy,  longer  or  shorter,  must  re- 
sult. In  passing  from  the  highest  of  the  lower 
animals  to  man,  we  reach   a  most  important 


TEE  MEANING  OF  EDUCATION 


Relation  of 
infancy  to 
education 


stage  in  the  development  of  infancy.  In  man 
we  find  the  increasing  bulk,  and  more  than  that, 
the  increasing  complexity,  of  the  brain  and 
central  nervous  system  which  accompany  the 
complex  adjustments  and  actions  that  make  up 
life.  But  though  the  human  animal  is  born 
into  the  world  complete  as  to  certain  series  of 
reflex  actions,  its  lungs  able  to  breathe,  its 
heart  to  beat,  its  blood-vessels  to  contract,  its 
glands  to  secrete,  an  immense  series  of  adjust- 
ments remains  to  be  made.  While  those  ad- 
justments are  being  made,  there  is  a  more  or 
less  prolonged  period  of  helplessness  or  infancy. 
The  meaning  of  that  period  of  helplessness 
or  infancy  lies  at  the  bottom  of  any  scientific 
and  philosophical  understanding  of  the  part 
played  by  education  in  human  life.  Infancy 
is  a  period  of  plasticity;  it  is  a  period  of  ad- 
justment; it  is  a  period  of  fitting  the  organism 
to  its  environment:  first,  physical  adjustment, 
and  then  adjustment  on  a  far  larger  and  broader 
scale.  This  fitting  of  the  organism  to  its  en- 
vironment on  the  larger  and  broader  scale  is 
the  field  of  education.  In  other  words,  nature 
and  heredity  have  so  organized  one  side  of 
animal  life  that  it  is  complete  at  the  time  of 
birth.  A  large  series  of  adjustments  to  the 
world    around    us,    the    series    of   adjustments 


THE  MEANING  OF  EDUCATION  19 

that  in  the  case  of  man  make  up  the  life  that 
is  really  worth  living,  constitutes  the  life  of  the 
mind  or  spirit.  At  birth,  those  adjustments 
are  not  yet  made  and  they  have  to  be  slowly 
and  carefully  acquired.  We  are  even  born  into 
the  world  with  our  senses,  "the  windows  of  * 
the  soul,"  locked,  unco-ordinated,  unadjusted, 
unable  to  perform  what  is  eventually  to  be 
their  function.  It  is  a  familiar  fact  that  sight, 
hearing,  and  touch  all  have  to  be  developed 
and  trained  and  coeducated,  taught  to  act  to- 
gether, before  the  infant  can  appreciate  and 
understand  the  world  of  three  dimensions  in 
which  adults  live,  and  which  they  have  sup- 
posed to  be  the  only  world  known  to  the  human 
consciousness.  While  that  period  of  plasticity 
or  adjustment  lasts,  there  is  naturally  and 
necessarily  a  vast  influence  exerted,  not  only 
on  the  child  but  by  the  child. 

Mr.  Fiske  is  undeniably  correct  in  saying  infancy  as  a 
that  the  prolonged  period  of  infancy  which  is  ^^p^ent 
necessary  to    bring   about    these    adjustments  of  the  family 

■•  1         r  1  rii  r*i         and  society 

lies  at  the  foundation  01  the  human  family, 
and  therefore  at  the  foundation  of  society  and 
of  institutional  life.  The  factor  in  history 
that  has  changed  the  human  being  from  a  gre- 
garious animal  to  a  man  living  in  a  monogamic 
family  is,  if  anthropology  and  psychology  teach 


20  THE  MEANING  OF  EDUCATION 

us  anything,  unquestionably  the  child.  Dur- 
ing this  long  period  of  helplessness  and  de- 
pendence, the  parents  of  the  child  are  kept 
together  by  a  common  centre  of  interest;  and 
the  bonds'  of  affection  and  interdependence  that 
are  eventually  to  constitute  the  family  are 
then  permanently  and  closely  knit.  That 
period  of  mutual  association  and  dependence 
of  the  parents  extends  at  first  over  only  eight, 
ten,  or  twelve  years.  If  two,  three,  or  four 
children  are  born  to  the  same  parents,  it  may 
extend  over  a  period  much  longer;  it  may  last 
during  one-third  or  even  one-half  of  the  aver- 
age life  of  man.  Out  of  that  centre  of  depen- 
dence and  helplessness,  the  family,  as  we  know 
it,  has  grown;  and  it  has  been  constituted,  so 
far  as  we  can  explain  it  at  all,  by  the  lengthen- 
ing period  of  infancy  in  the  animal  kingdom 
and  in  the  human  race.  Fact  after  fact  might 
be  cited  in  illustration  of  this,  from  the  history 
of  science  and  from  natural  history,  were  it 
not  wholly  unnecessary.  It  is  one  of  the  most 
profound  generalizations  of  our  modern  sci- 
ence; and  it  has  enabled  us  to  see  to  the  very 
bottom  of  the  meaning  of  education  and  to 
understand  the  biological  significance  of  one 
of  the  most  striking  and  imposing  of  social 
phenomena. 


THE  MEANING  OF  EDUCATION  21 

This  lengthening  period  of  infancy  is  a  The 
period  of  plasticity.  No  animal  that  has  not  pe^e^n8 
a  period  of  infancy  needs  to  be  educated,  infancy 
Every  animal  that  has  a  period  of  infancy  can 
and  must  be  educated.  The  longer  the  period 
of  infancy  the  more  education  is  possible  for 
it;  and  as  our  civilization  has  become  more 
complex,  as  its  products  have  become  more 
numerous,  richer,  deeper,  and  more  far-reach- 
ing, the  longer  we  have  extended  that  period 
of  tutelage,  until  now,  while  the  physiological 
period  of  adolescence  is  reached  in  perhaps 
fourteen  or  fifteen  years,  the  educational  period 
of  dependence  is  almost  twice  as  long.  That 
is  to  say,  the  length  of  time  that  it  takes  for 
the  human  child  in  this  generation  so  to  adapt 
himself  to  his  surroundings  as  to  be  able  to 
succeed  in  them,  to  conquer  them,  and  to  make 
them  his  own,  is  almost,  if  not  quite,  thirty 
years.  The  education  in  the  kindergarten,  the 
elementary  school,  the  secondary  school,  the 
college,  the  professional  school,  the  period  of 
apprenticeship  in  the  profession  before  inde- 
pendent practise  can  be  entered  upon,  is  in  not 
a  few  cases,  now  twenty -five,  twenty -six, 
twenty-eight,  or  even  thirty  years. 

The  rich  suggestion  that  this  doctrine  of  Mr. 
Fiske  and  this  conception  of  modern  science 


22  THE  MEANING  OF  EDUCATION 

Education  as    have  for  us,  seems  to  me  to  be  this:    The  en- 
adjustment  to  tjre  ec[ucational  period  after  the  physical  ad- 

environment  * 

justment  has  been  made,  after  the  child  can 
walk  alone,  can  feed  itself,  can  use  its  hands, 
and  has  therefore  acquired  physical  and  bodily 
independence,  is  an  adjustment  to  what  may 
be  called  our  spiritual  environment.  After 
the  physical  adjustment  is  reasonably  complete, 
there  remains  yet  to  be  accomplished  the  build- 
ing of  harmonious  and  reciprocal  relations  with 
those  great  acquisitions  of  the  race  that  con- 
stitute civilization;  and  therefore  the  length- 
ening period  of  infancy  simply  means  that  we 
are  spending  nearly  half  of  the  life  of  each 
generation  in  order  to  develop  in  the  young 
some  conception  of  the  vast  acquirements  of 
the  historic  past  and  some  mastery  of  the  con- 
ditions of  the  immediate  present. 

In  other  words,  the  doctrine  of  evolution 
teaches  us  to  look  upon  the  world  around  us 
— our  art,  our  science,  our  literature,  our  insti- 
tutions, and  our  religious  life — as  an  integral 
part,  indeed  as  the  essential  part,  of  our  en- 
vironment; and  it  teaches  us  to  look  upon 
education  as  the  plastic  period  of  adapting  and 
adjusting  our  self-active  organism  to  this  vast 
series  of  hereditary  acquisitions.  So  that  while 
the  child's  first  right  and  first  duty  are  to  ad- 


TEE  MEANING  OF  EDUCATION  23 

just  himself  physiologically  to  his  environment, 
to  learn  to  walk,  to  use  his  hands  and  to  feed 
himself,  to  be  physically  independent,  there  still 
remains  the  great  outer  circle  of  education  or 
culture,  without  contact  with  which  no  human 
being  is  really  either  man  or  woman.  The 
child  receives  first,  and  in  a  short  series  of 
years,  his  animal  inheritance;  it  then  remains 
for  us  in  the  period  of  education  to  see  to  it 
that  he  comes  into  his  human  inheritance. 
When  we  compare  the  life  of  the  lower  animal, 
acting  solely  and  entirely  by  reflex  action  and 
instinct,  with  the  periods  of  infancy  and  of 
self-determined  activity  of  the  human  being, 
developing  by  reflex  action,  instinct,  and  intelli- 
gence, we  get  some  conception  of  the  vast  dif- 
ference there  is  between  what  Descartes  called 
the  animal  mechanism  and  what  we  may  truly 
look  upon  as  the  activity  of  the  human  mind. 
This  period  of  adjustment  constitutes,  then, 
the  period  of  education;  and  this  period  of  ad- 
justment must,  as  it  seems  to  me,  give  us  the 
basis  for  all  educational  theory  and  all  educa- 
tional practise.  It  must  be  the  point  of  de- 
parture in  that  theory  and  that  practise,  and 
it  must  at  the  same  time  provide  us  with  our 
ideals.  When  we  hear  it  sometimes  said,  "All 
education  must  start  from  the  child,"  we  must 


\ 


24         TEE  MEANING  OF  EDUCATION 

add,  "Yes,  and  lead  into  human  civilization"; 
and  when  we  hear  it  said,  on  the  other  hand, 
that  all  education  must  start  from  the  tradi- 
tional past,  we  must  add:  "Yes,  and  be  adapted 
to  the  child."  We  shall  then  understand  how 
the  great  educational  systems  of  modern  times, 
upon  which  every  civilized  nation  is  pouring 
out  its  strength  and  its  treasure,  rest  upon  the 
two  corner-stones  of  the  physical  and  psychical 
nature  of  the  child  and  the  traditional  and 
hereditary  civilization  of  the  race;  and  how  it 
is  that  the  problem  of  the  family,  of  the  school, 
and  of  the  home,  is  to  unite  those  two  elements 
so  that  each  shall  enter  into  and  possess  the 
other.  We  shall  then  have  a  conception  of 
education  which  is  in  accord  with  the  doctrine 
of  evolution  and  which  is  in  accord  with  the 
teachings  of  modern  science  and  of  modern 
philosophy.  __^___ 

The  spiritual  After  the  child  comes  into  the  enjoyment  of 
his  physical  inheritance,  he  must  be  led  by  the 
family,  the  school,  and  the  state  into  his  in- 
tellectual or  spiritual  inheritance.  The  mo- 
ment that  fact  is  stated  in  those  terms  it  be- 
comes absolutely  impossible  for  us  ever  again 
to  identify  education  with  mere  instruction. 
It  becomes  absolutely  impossible  for  us  any 
longer  to  identify  education  with  mere  acqui- 


iaheritance  of 
the  child 


THE  MEANING  OF  EDUCATION  25 

sition  of  learning;  and  we  begin  to  look  upon 
it  as  really  the  vestibule  of  the  highest  and  the 
richest  type  of  living.  It  was  the  seed-thought 
of  Plato,  that  inspired  every  word  he  ever 
wrote,  and  that  constitutes  an  important  por- 
tion of  his  legacy  to  future  ages,  that  life  and 
philosophy  are  identical;  but  he  used  the  word 
philosophy  in  a  sense  which  was  familiar  to 
him  and  to  his  time,  and  for  which  we  might 
very  well  substitute,  under  some  of  its  phases 
at  least,  the  word  education.  Life  and  educa- 
tion are  identical,  because  the  period  to  which 
we  traditionally  confine  the  latter  term  is 
merely  the  period  of  more  formal,  definite, 
determinate  adjustment;  yet,  just  so  long  as 
life  lasts  and  our  impressionability  and  plas- 
ticity remain,  we  are  always  adapting  ourselves 
to  this  environment,  gaining  power,  like  An- 
taeus of  old,  each  time  we  touch  the  Mother 
Earth  from  which  civilization  springs. 

If  education  cannot  be  identified  with  mere  What  is 
instruction,  what  is  it  ?  What  does  the  term  education? 
mean  ?  I  answer,  it  must  mean  a  gradual  ad- 
justment to  the  spiritual  possessions  of  the 
race,  with  a  view  to  realizing  one's  own  po- 
tentialities and  to  assisting  in  carrying  forward 
that  complex  of  ideas,  acts,  and  institutions 
which    we    call    civilization.     Those    spiritual 


scientific 
inheritance 


26  THE  MEANING  OF  EDUCATION 

possessions  may  be  variously  classified,  but 
they  certainly  are  at  least  fivefold.  The  child 
is  entitled  to  his  scientific  inheritance,  to  his 
literary  inheritance,  to  his  aesthetic  inheri- 
tance, to  his  institutional  inheritance,  and  to 
his  religious  inheritance.  Without  them  all  he 
cannot  become  a  truly  educated  or  a  truly 
cultivated  man. 
The  He  is   entitled  to  his   scientific  inheritance. 

In  other  words,  he  is  entitled  to  go  out  into 
nature,  to  love  it,  to  come  to  know  it,  to  un- 
derstand it;  and  he  is  entitled  to  go  out  into 
it,  not  only  as  the  early  Greek  and  Oriental 
thinkers  went,  with  fear  and  trembling  and 
worship,  but  he  is  entitled  to  go  out  into  it 
armed  with  all  the  resources  of  modern  scien- 
tific method  and  all  the  facts  acquired  by 
modern  research.  He  is  entitled  to  know  how 
it  was  that  we  have  passed  from  the  world 
known  to  the  heroes  of  the  Iliad  to  the  world 
as  we  know  it  to-day.  He  is  entitled  to  know 
how  the  heavens  have  declared  their  glory  to 
man,  and  how  the  worlds  of  plant  and  animal 
and  rock  have  all  come  to  unfold  the  story  of 
the  past  and  to  enrich  us  with  the  thought  and 
the  suggestion  of  the  intelligence,  the  design, 
the  order  that  they  manifest.  There  can  be 
no   sound    and    liberal   education   that   is    not 


THE  MEANING  OF  EDUCATION  27 

based  in  part  upon  the  scientific  inheritance  of 
the  race.  The  learning  of  the  multiplication 
table,  the  learning  of  the  necessary  preliminary 
definitions,  the  learning  of  the  necessary  meth- 
ods of  research  and  practise  —  all  these  are 
the  lower  steps  of  the  ladder,  the  needful  steps 
by  which  we  must  mount;  and  yet  they  are 
the  steps  from  which  how  often  we  fall  back 
without  having  gained  any  vision  whatever  of 
the  land  to  which  they  are  supposed  to  lead  ! 
The  scientific  inheritance  is  one  of  the  very  first 
elements  of  a  modern  liberal  education,  because 
it  is  that  element  which  presents  itself  earliest 
to  the  senses  of  the  child.  It  is  the  element 
with  which  he  comes  in  immediate  sense-con- 
tact; to  which  he  can  be  first  led;  from  which 
he  may  be  made  to  understand  and  draw 
lessons  of  the  deepest  significance  for  his  life 
and  for  that  adaptation  which  is  his  education. 

Next  there  is  the  vast  literary  inheritance,  The  literary 
the  phase  of  the  past  that  mankind  has  during  l  entance 
twenty-five  hundred  years  most  loved  to  dwell 
upon.  It  is  the  side  that  has  captivated  the 
imagination,  enshrined  itself  in  language,  and 
brought  itself  closest  to  the  heart  of  cultivated 
man — going  back  to  the  earliest  attempts  at 
mythology  and  coming  down  to  the  great 
poetry  and  the  great  prose  of  the  eighteenth 


28  THE  MEANING  OF  EDUCATION 

and  nineteenth  centuries  in  modern  tongues. 
We  have  gone  so  far  as  to  call  this  aspect  of 
civilization  the  "humanities,"  because  most  of 
all  it  seems  to  bear  upon  its  surface  the  sig- 
nificance of  that  fine  old  word  humanitas  which 
was  once  the  ideal  of  liberal  education.  "Hu- 
manities" these  studies  undoubtedly  are,  but 
humanitas  is  a  broader  term  still,  and  in  its 
full  significance  must  be  made  to  include  all 
our  inheritance,  scientific,  aesthetic,  institu- 
tional, and  religious,  as  well  as  literary. 

Just  as  scientific  method  is  the  gate  to  the 
scientific  inheritance  and  therefore  must  in 
essence  at  least  be  mastered,  so  language  is  the 
gate  to  the  literary  inheritance  and  must  be 
mastered  at  the  earliest  opportunity.  We  are 
accustomed,  as  a  rule,  to  estimate  and  to  weigh 
power  and  culture  in  terms  of  language.  The 
mastery  of  various  languages,  the  mastery  even 
of  the  mother  tongue,  is  often  taken  as  the  sole 
test  of  culture.  That  is  our  tribute  to  its  great 
importance.  We  see  how  easily  the  mastery 
of  a  language,  or  of  more  than  one,  lends  it- 
self to  this  conception  of  education  as  an 
adaptation,  as  an  adjustment,  to  the  spiritual 
environment  of  the  race. 

Language    is    the    crystallization    of    past 
thought.     It  contains  in  itself,  in  its  products 


THE  MEANING  OF  EDUCATION         29 

and  its  forms,  in  its  delicate  discriminations, 
its  powers  of  comparison  and  abstraction,  a 
record  of  the  progress  of  the  thought  of  the 
race.  When  we  are  plodding  through  dreary 
details  of  grammar  and  of  rhetoric  we  are 
again  on  the  lower  rungs  of  the  ladder,  the 
multiplication  table  of  the  literary  inheritance, 
the  steps  that  must  be  taken  if  we  are  to  come 
to  understand  what  the  great  world-poets  and 
seers  have  revealed  to  us.  Therefore  it  is  that 
we  are  to-day  putting  the  literary  inheritance 
side  by  side  with  the  scientific  in  the  very 
earliest  years  of  the  education  of  the  child. 
In  the  education  that  is  sometimes  called  new, 
it  will  be  found  that  the  early  linguistic  exer- 
cises are  almost  always  based  upon  something 
that  is  really  worth  knowing  for  its  own  sake. 
Our  literatures  the  world  over,  ancient  and 
modern,  are  so  rich,  so  full  of  thought  and  feel- 
ing and  action,  that  there  is  no  time  to  waste 
in  the  merely  formal  exercises  of  grammatical 
drill  upon  lifeless  material,  when  we  may  be 
occupying  ourselves,  in  those  same  exercises 
and  for  the  same  purpose  of  discipline,  with 
material  that  enriches  the  human  mind  and 
touches  and  refines  the  human  heart.  Modern 
education  in  its  adjustments  is  bringing  the 
child   into   his   literary   inheritance   in    a   new 


3o         THE  MEANING  OF  EDUCATION 

spirit.  That  inheritance  has  always  been  be- 
fore mankind.  In  the  Middle  Ages,  in  early 
modern  education,  in  European  education  to- 
day, the  study  of  language  and  literature  is 
and  has  been  the  main  element  in  instruction. 
It  must  always  hold  a  prominent  place  in  edu- 
cation, for  it  admits  of  no  substitute.  Yet  it 
is  mere  narrowness  to  say  that  this  study  alone 
is  sufficient,  and  that  it  excludes  everything 
else.  It  should  come  side  by  side  with  the  sci- 
entific inheritance  in  the  early  life  of  the  child, 
during  the  period  of  plasticity  or  education. 
The  The  third   element  in  education  is  the  aes- 

*sthetic  thetic  inheritance,  that  feeling  for  the  beauti- 

inhentance  '  ° 

ful,  the  picturesque,  and  the  sublime  that  has 
always  been  so  great  a  part  of  human  life, 
that  contributes  so  much  to  human  pleasure 
and  accentuates  so  much  of  human  pain  and 
suffering.  The  ancient  Greeks  understood  and 
used  it,  but  a  false  and  narrowing  philosophy 
thrust  it  out  of  life  and  education  for  centuries 
because  it  was  supposed  to  antagonize  the  spiri- 
tual or  religious  life.  It  was  believed  that  the 
spirit  could  be  chastened  only  by  privation 
and  by  pain,  by  tearing  it  away  from  one 
whole  side  of  human  civilization,  and  by  in- 
sisting that  the  human  heart  should  suppress 
its  feeling,  its  longing  for  the  ideal  in  the  realm 


TEE  MEANING  OF  EDUCATION         31 

of  feeling  and  of  beauty.  The  closet  phi- 
losophers could  accomplish  their  end  in  educa- 
tion for  a  time,  but  they  were  utterly  unable 
to  suppress  the  builders  of  the  Gothic  cathe- 
drals or  the  Italian  painters  of  the  Renaissance, 
and  they  have  been  unable  to  suppress  the 
artistic  element  in  human  life.  To-day  we 
find  it  coming  back  to  occupy  its  appropriate 
place.  We  should  no  longer  think  of  applying 
the  word  cultivated  to  a  man  or  woman  who 
had  no  aesthetic  sense,  no  feeling  for  the  beau- 
tiful, no  appreciation  of  the  sublime,  because 
we  should  be  justified  in  saying,  on  all  psy- 
chological grounds,  that  that  nature  was  defi- 
cient and  defective.  This  great  aspect  of 
civilization,  this  great  tide  of  feeling  that  ebbs 
and  flows  in  every  human  breast,  which  makes 
even  the  dull  and  inappreciative  peasant  un- 
cover his  head  as  he  passes  through  the  won- 
derful galleries  of  the  Vatican  or  the  Louvre 
— this,  too,  is  a  necessary  factor  in  adjusting 
ourselves  to  the  full  richness  of  human  con- 
quest and  human  acquisition.  Unless  we  are 
to  be  mere  hewers  of  wood  and  drawers  of 
water,  we  should  see  to  it  that  the  aesthetic 
inheritance  is  placed  side  by  side  with  the  sci- 
entific and  the  literary  in  the  education  of  the 
human    child.     To-day   we    find    art    creeping 


institutional 
inheritance 


32  THE  MEANING  OF  EDUCATION 

into  the  schoolroom;  instruction  in  color,  in 
form,  in  expression  is  being  given.  The  grow- 
ing child  is  surrounded  with  representations  of 
the  classic  in  art,  and  so,  unconsciously  and  by 
imitation,  he  is  being  taught  to  adapt  and  ad- 
just himself  to  this  once  forgotten  and  now 
recovered  element  in  human  civilization;  an 
element  that  certainly  is,  like  the  scientific  and 
literary  elements,  an  integral  part  of  the 
child's  inheritance. 
The  Then    there   is    also   the   wonderful    institu- 

tional inheritance,  perhaps  the  most  wonder- 
ful of  all,  because  it  brings  us  into  immediate 
contact  with  the  human  race  itself.  This  is 
the  element  of  civilization  before  which  we 
must,  for  the  moment,  sink  differences  of  sci- 
entific opinion,  differences  of  literary  appre- 
ciation, differences  of  aesthetic  judgment,  and 
by  which  we  look  upon  the  individual  man 
as  but  a  member  of  a  larger  whole,  in  order 
to  understand  what  human  civilization  really 
means.  We  have  always  had  before  us,  in  the 
history  of  civilization,  two  extreme  types  of 
thought  and  opinion  as  to  human  institutions. 
We  have  had  the  view  typified  in  modern  phi- 
losophy by  Rousseau,  and  wrought  out  in  the 
streets  of  Paris  from  1789  to  1794.  This  is, 
substantially,   the  view  that   every  individual 


THE  MEANING  OF  EDUCATION         $$ 

is  sufficient  unto  himself.  It  is  the  view  of  the 
ancient  Sophists,  once  combated  by  Socrates 
in  the  streets  of  Athens,  that  there  are  as  many 
truths  as  there  are  men  to  perceive  truth,  and 
that  each  individual  is  the  sole  arbiter  of  his 
own  fortunes.  This  is  what  may  be  called  the 
atomic  view  of  human  society,  which  would 
blow  all  of  our  institutional  life  into  millions 
of  atoms  and  deify  each.  That  view  has  failed 
to  work  itself  out  successfully  in  history;  when 
it  has  had  a  momentary  victory  it  has  simply 
been  because  it  came  as  a  reaction  against  the 
tyranny  of  the  opposite  extreme.  We  have 
had  the  other  extreme  also.  We  have  had  the 
view  which  insists  that  no  individual  is  of  any 
consequence  or  importance  in  the  presence  of 
the  mass;  the  view  that  all  individual  peculi- 
arity, all  individual  power  or  acquisition,  must 
be  pressed  down  and  trampled  under  foot  for 
the  advantage  of  the  whole.  We  have  seen  it 
in  the  civilization  of  China  in  the  interest  of 
ancestor  worship;  we  have  seen  it  in  the  civili- 
zation of  India  in  the  interest  of  the  caste  sys- 
tem; we  have  seen  it  in  the  civilization  of 
Egypt  in  the  interest  of  the  priestly  class;  and 
we  have  seen  those  three  civilizations  wither 
and  die. 
We  have  come  to  understand,  again  follow- 


34  THE  MEANING  OF  EDUCATION 

ing  the  seed-thought  of  the  Greeks,  that  the 
true  line  of  institutional  progress  lies  between 
the  two  extremes;  that  that  conception  of  our 
institutional  life  is  the  true  one  which  regards 
each  of  us  as  a  unit  but  still  as  a  part  of  a 
larger  unit,  which  regards  each  of  us  as  en- 
titled to  liberty  but  in  subordination  to  law. 
We  have  come  to  regard  this  as  the  last  lesson 
of  a  political  philosophy  that  is  based  upon  a 
study  of  human  history  and  of  human  nature. 
The  conception  of  liberty  under  the  law,  allow- 
ing a  field  for  every  human  activity  to  develop 
and  enrich  itself  without  pulling  down  its  fel- 
low, all  co-operating  toward  a  common  end, 
typifies  and  explains,  better  than  any  extreme 
theory  of  philosopher  or  sciolist,  the  institu- 
tional life  of  the  race.  We  look  back  and  see 
how  that  institutional  life  has  been  developed. 
We  see  the  right  of  private  property,  the  com- 
mon law,  the  state,  the  church,  the  freedom  of 
the  press,  education, — one  great  institution 
after  another  emerging  from  the  mist  of  indef- 
initeness  and  taking  its  part  in  the  structure 
of  our  modern  life;  and  we  say  at  once  that 
no  liberal  education  can  be  complete  that  does 
not  include  some  comprehension  of  all  that. 
Unless  the  child  understands  that,  though  he 
is   an  individual  he  is   also  a  member  of  the 


THE  MEANING  OF  EDUCATION  35 

body  politic,  of  an  institutional  life  in  which 
he  must  give  and  take,  defer  and  obey,  adjust 
and  correlate,  sympathize  and  co-operate,  and 
that  without  all  this  there  can  be  no  civiliza- 
tion and  no  progress,  we  are  thrown  back  into 
a  condition  either  of  anarchy — the  anarchy  of 
Rousseau — or  of  the  collectivism  and  stagna- 
tion of  China,  India,  and  Egypt.  We  have 
wrested  that  institutional  life  from  history, 
and  it  is  going  to-day  into  the  education  of 
children  all  over  the  civilized  world.  In  this 
way  they  are  being  given  their  institutional  in- 
heritance; they  are  being  given  some  insight 
not  alone  into  their  rights,  which  are  so  easy 
to  teach,  but  into  their  duties,  which  are  so 
easy  to  forget;  and  the  institutional  life  that 
carries  with  it  lessons  of  duty,  responsibility, 
and  the  necessity  for  co-operation  in  the  work- 
ing out  of  high  ideals,  as  well  as  appreciation 
of  men's  collective  responsibilities,  is  now  being 
put  before  children  wherever  sound  education 
is  given,  from  the  kindergarten  to  the  uni- 
versity. 

Finally,  there  is  the  religious  inheritance  of  The  religious 
the  child.     No  student  of  history  can  doubt  ^^^^ 
its  existence  and  no  observer  of  human  nature 
will  undervalue  its  significance.     We  are  still 
far  from  comprehending  fully  the  preponder- 


36  THE  MEANING  OF  EDUCATION 

ant  influence  of  religion  in  shaping  our  con- 
temporary civilization;  an  influence  that  is 
due  in  part  to  the  universality  of  religion  it- 
self, and  in  part  to  the  fact  that  it  was,  beyond 
dispute,  the  chief  human  interest  at  the  time 
when  the  foundations  of  our  present  super- 
structure were  being  laid.  It  has  played  a 
controlling  part  in  education  till  very  recently, 
although  it  has  too  often  played  that  part  in 
a  narrow,  illiberal,  and  uninformed  spirit. 
The  progress  of  events  during  the  nineteenth 
century,  however,  has  resulted  in  greatly  alter- 
ing the  relation  of  the  religious  influence  in 
education — at  first  to  education's  incalculable 
gain,  and,  more  recently,  to  education's  dis- 
tinct loss.  The  growing  tendency  toward  what 
is  known  as  the  separation  of  church  and  state, 
but  what  is  more  accurately  described  as  the 
independence  of  man's  political  and  religious 
relationships,  and,  concurrently,  the  develop- 
ment of  a  public  educational  conscience  which 
has  led  the  state  to  take  upon  itself  a  large 
share  of  the  responsibility  for  education,  have 
brought  about  the  practical  exclusion  of  the 
religious  element  from  public  education.  This 
is  notably  true  in  France  and  in  the  United 
States.  In  the  state  school  system  of  France, 
all  trace  of  religious  instruction  has  been  lack- 


THE  MEANING  OF  EDUCATION         37 

ing  since  1882;  and  it  is  hard  to  dignify  with 
the  names  influence  or  instruction  the  wretch- 
edly formal  religious  exercises  that  are  gone 
through  with  in  American  public  schools. 

The  result  of  this  condition  of  affairs  is  that 
religious  teaching  is  rapidly  passing  out  of  edu- 
cation entirely;  and  the  familiarity  with  the 
English  Bible  as  the  greatest  classic  of  our 
tongue,  that  every  cultivated  man  owes  it  to 
himself  to  possess,  is  becoming  a  thing  of  the 
past.  Two  solutions  of  the  difficulty  are  pro- 
posed. One  is  that  the  state  shall  tolerate  all 
existing  forms  of  religious  teaching  in  its  own 
schools,  time  being  set  apart  for  the  purpose. 
The  other  is  that  the  state  shall  aid,  by  money 
grants,  schools  maintained  by  religious  or  other 
corporations.  Neither  suggestion  is  likely  to 
be  received  favorably  by  the  American  people 
at  present,  because  of  the  bitterness  of  the  war 
between  the  denominational  theologies.  Yet 
the  religious  element  may  not  be  permitted  to 
pass  wholly  out  of  education  unless  we  are  to 
cripple  it  and  render  it  hopelessly  incomplete. 
It  must  devolve  upon  the  family  and  the  church, 
then,  to  give  this  instruction  to  the  child  and 
to  preserve  the  religious  insight  from  loss. 
Both  family  and  church  must  become  much 
more    efficient,    educationally    speaking,    than 


38         THE  MEANING  OF  EDUCATION 

they  are  now,  if  they  are  to  bear  this  burden 
successfully.  This  opens  a  series  of  questions 
that  may  not  be  entered  upon  here.  It  is 
enough  to  point  out  that  the  religious  element 
of  human  culture  is  essential;  and  that,  by 
some  effective  agency,  it  must  be  presented  to 
every  child  whose  education  aims  at  complete- 
ness or  proportion.1 

infancy  and  The  period  of  infancy  is  to  be  used  by  civi- 
lized men  for  adaptation  along  these  five  lines, 
in  order  to  introduce  the  child  to  his  intellectual 
and  spiritual  inheritance,  just  as  the  shorter 
period  of  infancy  in  the  lower  animals  is  used 
to  develop,  to  adjust,  and  to  co-ordinate  those 
physical  actions  which  constitute  the  higher  in- 
stincts, and  which  require  the  larger,  the  more 
deeply  furrowed,  and  the  more  complex  brain. 
With  this  adaptation  to  the  intellectual  and 
spiritual  inheritance  of  the  child  there  must 
go,  of  course,  such  physical  training  and  such 
systematic  care  for  his  health  as  will  serve  to 
provide  a  sufficient  and  satisfactory  physical 
foundation  for  a  happy  and  useful  intellectual 
and  spiritual  life. 

That,  as  it  seems  to  me,  is  the  lesson  of  bi- 
ology, of  physiology,  and  of  psychology,  on  the 
basis  of  the  theory  of  evolution,  regarding  the 

1  See  pp.  179-200. 


TEE  MEANING  OF  EDUCATION         39 

meaning  and  the  place  of  education  in  modern 
life.  It  gives  us  a  conception  of  education 
which  must,  I  am  quite  sure,  raise  it  above 
the  mechanical,  the  routine,  the  purely  arti- 
ficial. We  see  that  this  period  of  preparation 
is  not  a  period  of  haphazard  action,  a  period 
of  possible  neglect,  or  a  period  when  time  may 
be  frittered  away  and  lost,  but  that  every  mo- 
ment of  adjustment  is  precious  and  that  every 
new  adaptation  and  correlation  is  an  enrich- 
ment not  only  of  the  life  of  the  individual  but 
of  the  life  of  the  race.  For  now  we  all  under- 
stand perfectly  well  that  this  long  period  of 
infancy  and  adaptation,  this  period  of  plas- 
ticity and  education,  is  that  which  makes 
progress  possible.  That  is  why  it  is  entirely 
correct  to  say  that  each  generation  is  the  trus- 
tee of  civilization.  Each  generation  owes  it 
to  itself  and  to  its  posterity  to  protect  its  cul- 
ture, to  enrich  it,  and  to  transmit  it.  The  in- 
stitution that  mankind  has  worked  out  for  that 
purpose  is  the  institution  known  as  education. 
When  a  child  has  entered  into  this  inheritance, 
first  physical,  then  scientific,  literary,  aesthetic, 
institutional,  and  religious,  then  we  may  use 
the  word  culture1  to  signify  the  state  that  has 
been  attained. 

1  In  the  German  language  the  word  Kultur  is  given  a  quite 
different  meaning.  The  nearest  German  equivalent  to  culture  as 
here  used  is  Bildung. 


4o         THE  MEANING  OF  EDUCATION 

The  meaning        The   word   culture   is   very   modern.     It   is 
of  culture        use(j  jn  jtg  present  sense  only  during  the  latter 

portion  of  the  eighteenth  century  and  during 
our  own.  It  owes  its  present  significance 
largely  to  Goethe  and  to  Herder,  the  two  men 
who  did  most  to  make  it  familiar  in  its  modern 
sense.  But  while  the  word  may  be  new,  the 
conception  itself  is  old.  It  is  the  7rcuSe/fa  of 
the  Greeks,  the  humanitas  of  the  Romans; 
and  after  all  it  expresses  pretty  much  what 
the  patrician  Roman,  dwelling  in  his  country 
house,  had  in  mind  when  he  sent  his  boy,  after 
giving  him  some  instruction  in  agriculture,  in 
law,  and  in  military  duty,  to  the  great  city  of 
Rome  itself  in  order  to  obtain  urbanitas,  city- 
ness.  We  have  softened  that  word  down  until 
it  means  merely  polished  manner,  but  when  the 
Romans  first  used  it  they  meant  by  it  pretty 
much  what  we  mean  by  culture.  The  concep- 
tion of  culture  is  old,  therefore;  it  has  always 
been  before  the  idealists  of  the  human  race 
from  the  earliest  times.  We  have  given  to 
this  new  word  rich,  full,  and  diversified  mean- 
ing, based,  as  I  say,  upon  the  knowledge  of  the 
child  and  upon  the  knowledge  of  the  historic 
past.  When  we  use  it  in  that  sense,  we  are 
using  it,  as  we  may  properly,  to  indicate  the 
ideal  of  our  modern  education. 


THE  MEANING  OF  EDUCATION         41 

Adaptation  to  the  intellectual  and  spiritual 
environment,  the  attainment  of  true  culture, 
is  not  an  end  in  itself,  but  a  necessary  prepara- 
tion for  the  realization  of  one's  own  person- 
ality, and  for  rendering  the  highest  and  best 
type  of  service  to  mankind.  The  intellectual 
and  spiritual  environment  is  not  to  be  con- 
ceived of  as  something  fixed  and  complete,  but 
rather  as  something  growing  and  alive,  to  which 
it  is  in  the  power  of  every  human  being  to  make 
some  addition,  however  trifling.  These  addi- 
tions are  the  material  of  true  progress.  The 
purpose  of  education  is  to  provide  the  largest 
possible  number  of  human  beings  with  that 
genuine  culture  which  will  enable  them  to  un- 
derstand the  meaning  of  progress  and  to  con- 
tribute to  it.  This  progress  may  take  any 
one  of  a  myriad  forms.  It  may  be  faithfulness 
in  inconspicuous  labor,  it  may  be  a  new  and 
striking  product  of  handiwork,  it  may  be  hu- 
man service  to  one's  fellows  in  any  one  of  a 
thousand  ways.  Progress  based  upon  culture 
is  surely  progress;  without  culture  and  all  that 
the  word  is  here  held  to  signify,  progress  is 
only  an  empty  word. 


Ill 


WHAT  KNOWLEDGE  IS  OF  MOST 
WORTH  ? 


Presidential  address  before  the  National  Educational 
Association  at  Denver,  Colorado,  July  9,  1895 


WHAT  KNOWLEDGE  IS  OF  MOST 
WORTH  ? 

The  student  of  history  is  struck  with  the 
complexity  of  modern  thought.  From  the 
dawn  of  philosophy  to  the  great  Revival  of 
Learning  the  lines  of  development  are  com- 
paratively simple  and  direct.  During  that 
period  one  may  trace,  step  by  step,  the  evolu- 
tion of  the  main  problems  of  thought  and 
action,  and  discover  readily  how  the  theories 
of  the  seers  stood  the  test  of  application  by 
the  men  of  deeds.  At  Athens  during  the  great 
fifth  century  the  inner  life  was  the  chief  part 
of  life  itself.  In  that  age  of  the  world  life  was 
simple;  and  often,  because  of  its  refinement 
and  independence,  more  reflective  than  with  us. 
Men's  ideals  were  more  sharply  defined  and 
more  easily  realizable.  They  did  not  doubt 
that  the  world  existed  for  them  and  their  en- 
joyment. Even  that  relatively  advanced  stage 
of  human  culture  of  which  Dante  is  the  im- 
mortal exponent,  believed,  as  Mr.  John  Fiske 
says,1  that  "this  earth,  the  fair  home  of  man, 
was  placed  in  the  centre  of  a  universe  wherein 

1  The  Destiny  of  Man  (Boston,  1887),  p.  12. 
45 


46  WHAT  KNOWLEDGE 

all  things  were  ordained  for  his  sole  behoof: 
the  sun  to  give  him  light  and  warmth,  the  stars 
in  their  courses  to  preside  over  his  strangely 
checkered  destinies,  the  winds  to  blow,  the 
floods  to  rise,  or  the  fiend  of  pestilence  to  stalk 
abroad  over  the  land — all  for  the  blessing,  or 
the  warning,  or  the  chiding,  of  the  chief  among 
God's  creatures,  Man."  With  such  a  concep- 
tion as  this,  theory  and  practise  could  be  closely 
related.  In  the  ancient  world  it  was  not  un- 
usual to  find  the  thought  of  the  disciple  guided 
implicitly  by  the  maxim  of  the  master.  Yv&di 
ceavTov  and  Nil  admirari  were  preached  by 
the  early  philosophers  in  the  confident  belief 
that  they  could  be  practised  by  him  who  would. 
The  complex  In  these  modern  days  all  this  is  changed. 
Man  has  come  to  doubt  not  only  his  supremacy 
in  the  universe,  but  even  his  importance.  He 
finds  that,  far  from  dwelling  at  the  centre  of 
things,  he  is  but  "the  denizen  of  an  obscure 
and  tiny  speck  of  cosmical  matter  quite  invisi- 
ble amid  the  innumerable  throng  of  flaming 
suns  that  make  up  our  galaxy."  A  flood  of 
new  knowledge  has  appealed  to  human  sym- 
pathy and  interest,  and  has  taxed  them  to  the 
utmost.  Galileo  with  his  telescope  has  re- 
vealed to  us  the  infinitely  great;  and  the  com- 
pound microscope  of  Jansen  has  created,  as  out 


modern 
world 


IS  OF  MOST  WORTH?  47 

of  nothing,  the  world  of  the  infinitely  small. 
Within  a  generation  or  two  biology  has  been 
created;  and  physics,  chemistry,  and  geology 
have  been  born  again.  The  first  wave  of  as- 
tonishment and  delight  at  these  great  revela- 
tions has  been  succeeded  by  one  of  perplexity 
and  doubt  in  the  presence  of  the  wholly  new 
problems  that  they  raise.  The  old  self-assur- 
ance is  lost.  Men  first  stumble,  blinded  by  the 
new  and  unaccustomed  light,  and  then  despair. 
The  age  of  the  faith  and  assured  conviction  of 
Aquinas  was  followed  by  the  bold  and  cynical 
scepticism  of  Montaigne;  and  this  in  turn — 
for  scepticism  has  never  afforded  a  resting- 
place  for  the  human  spirit  for  more  than  a 
moment — has  yielded  to  the  philosophy  of  dis- 
enchantment and  despair  of  a  Schopenhauer 
and  the  morbidly  acute  and  unsatisfying  self- 
analysis  of  an  Amiel.  Already  it  is  proclaimed 
by  Nordau  and  his  school  that  we  are  in  an  age 
of  decadence,  and  that  many  of  our  contempo- 
rary interpreters  of  life  and  thought — Wagner, 
Tolstoi,  Ibsen,  Zola,  the  pre-Raphaelites — are 
fit  subjects  for  an  insane  ayslum.  Mankind  is 
divided  into  warring  camps,  and  while  elec- 
tricity and  steam  have  bound  the  nations  of 
the  earth  together,  questions  of  knowledge  and 
of  belief  have  split  up  every  nation  into  sects. 


48  WHAT  KNOWLEDGE 

In  all  this  tumult  it  is  difficult  to  catch  the 
sound  of  the  dominant  note.  Each  suggested 
interpretation  seems  to  lead  us  further  into  the 
tangled  maze,  where  we  cannot  see  the  wood 
for  the  trees.  Standards  of  truth  are  more 
definite  than  ever  before;  but  standards  of 
worth  are  strangely  confused,  and  at  times 
even  their  existence  is  denied. 
Hegel  and  Amid  all  this  confusion,  however,  a  light  has 

Herbert  iDeen  growmg  steadily  brighter  for  those  who 

have  eyes  to  see.  In  our  own  century  two 
great  masters  of  thought  have  come  forward, 
offering,  like  Ariadne  of  old,  to  place  in  our 
hands  the  guiding  thread  that  shall  lead  us 
through  the  labyrinth — the  German  Hegel  and 
the  Englishman  Herbert  Spencer.  And  as  the 
nineteenth  century  closes,  amid  the  din  of 
other  and  lesser  voices,  we  seem  to  hear  the 
deeper  tones  of  these  two  interpreters  swelling 
forth  as  representative  of  the  best  and  most 
earnest  endeavors,  from  two  totally  different 
points  of  view,  of  human  seekers  after  light. 
Each  has  taken  the  whole  of  knowledge  for  his 
province,  each  has  spread  out  before  us  a  con- 
nected view  of  man  and  his  environment,  and 
each  would 

"...  assert  Eternal  Providence 
And  justify  the  ways  of  God  to  men." 


IS  OF  MOST  WORTH?  49 

These  great  teachers  typify  the  catholicity  and 
the  scientific  method  that  are  so  characteristic 
of  the  best  expressions  of  our  modern  civiliza- 
tion. Whatever  of  insight  we  have  gained 
into  history,  into  philosophy,  into  art,  and  into 
nature,  they  have  incorporated  in  their  syste- 
matic thinking  and  have  endeavored  to  illumine 
with  the  light  of  their  controlling  principles. 
Hegel,  schooled  in  the  teachings  of  Kant  and 
of  Fichte,  and  coming  early  to  an  appreciation 
of  the  seed-thought  of  Plato  and  Aristotle, 
Bruno  and  Spinoza,  has  taught  us  in  unmis- 
takable language  that  independent,  self-active 
being  is  the  father  of  all  things.  Spencer,  feel- 
ing the  thrill  of  that  unity  which  makes  the 
cosmos  one,  and  receiving  from  Lamarck  and 
Von  Baer  the  hint  that  led  him  to  see  that  the 
life  of  the  individual  furnishes  the  clew  to  the 
understanding  of  the  life  of  the  aggregate, 
whether  natural  or  social,  has  formulated  into 
a  single  and  understandable  law  of  progress 
the  terms  of  that  development,  or  evolution, 
which  has  been  more  or  less  dimly  before  the 
mind  of  man  since  thought  began.  The  Ger- 
man with  his  principle  of  self-activity,  and  the 
Englishman  with  his  law  of  evolution,  offer  us 
a  foothold  for  our  knowledge  and  our  faith, 
and  assure  us  that  it  will  safely  support  them. 


5° 


WHAT  KNOWLEDGE 


The  primacy 
of  reflective 
thought 


From  the  one  we  learn  the  eternal  reasonable- 
ness of  all  that  is  or  can  be,  while  the  other 
teaches  us  the  character  of  the  process  by 
which  the  visible  universe,  that  every  day  pre- 
sents new  wonders  to  our  gaze,  has  been 
builded  out  of  the  primeval  star-dust.  At 
their  hands  the  two  sublime  and  awe-inspiring 
verities  of  Kant — the  starry  heavens  above 
and  the  moral  law  within — find  their  places  in 
the  life  of  the  spirit,  and  together  testify  to 
its  eternity  and  its  beauty. 

Despite  the  fact  that  our  age  is  one  of  un- 
exampled scientific  and  industrial  progress,  yet 
nothing  in  all  our  modern  scientific  activity  is 
more  striking  than  the  undisputed  primacy  of 
thought — thought  not  in  antagonism  to  sense, 
but  interpretative  of  the  data  of  sense.  Ideal- 
ism, shorn  of  its  crudities  and  its  extravagances, 
and  based  on  reason  rather  than  on  Berkeley's 
analysis  of  sense-perception,  is  conquering  the 
world.  What  Plato  saw,  Descartes,  Leibniz, 
Kant,  and  Hegel  have  demonstrated.  The 
once-dreaded  materialism  has  lost  all  its  ter- 
Science  itself  has  analyzed  matter  into 


rors. 


an  aggregate  of  dynamical  systems,  and  speaks 
of  energy  in  terms  of  will.  The  seemingly 
inert  stone  that  we  grasp  in  our  hand  is  in 
reality  an  aggregate  of  an  infinite  number  of 


IS  OF  MOST  WORTH/  51 

rapidly  moving  centres  of  energy.  Our  own 
will  is  the  only  energy  of  whose  direct  action 
we  are  immediately  conscious,  and  we  use  our 
experience  of  it  to  explain  other  manifestations 
of  energy  to  ourselves.  Modern  mathematics, 
that  most  astounding  of  intellectual  creations, 
has  projected  the  mind's  eye  through  infinite 
time  and  the  mind's  hand  into  boundless  space. 
The  very  instants  of  the  beginnings  of  the 
sun's  eclipses  are  predicted  for  centuries  and 
aeons  to  come.  Sirius,  so  distant  that  the  light 
from  its  surface,  travelling  at  a  rate  of  speed 
that  vies  with  the  lightning,  requires  more 
than  eight  and  one-half  years  to  reach  us,  is 
weighed,  and  its  constituents  are  counted  al- 
most as  accurately  as  are  the  bones  of  our 
bodies.  Yet  in  1842  Comte  declared  that  it 
was  forever  impossible  to  hope  to  determine 
the  chemical  composition  or  the  mineralogical 
structure  of  the  stars.  An  unexpected  aberra- 
tion in  the  motions  of  Uranus  foretold  an  un- 
discovered planet  at  a  given  spot  in  the  sky, 
and  the  telescope  of  Galle,  turned  to  that 
precise  point,  revealed  to  the  astonished  senses 
what  was  certain  to  thought.  But  yesterday 
a  discrepancy  in  the  weight  of  nitrogen  ex- 
tracted from  the  air  we  breathe,  led  Lord 
Rayleigh,  by  an  inexorable  logic,  to  the  dis- 


52  WHAT  KNOWLEDGE 

cover}/  of  a  new  atmospheric  constituent,  argon. 
The  analytical  geometry  of  Descartes  and  the 
calculus  of  Newton  and  Leibniz  have  expanded 
into  the  marvellous  mathematical  method — 
more  daring  in  its  speculations  than  anything 
that  the  history  of  philosophy  records — of  Lo- 
bachevsky  and  Riemann,  Gauss  and  Sylvester. 
Indeed,  mathematics,  the  indispensable  tool  of 
the  sciences,  defying  the  senses  to  follow  its 
splendid  flights,  is  demonstrating  to-day,  as  it 
has  never  been  demonstrated  before,  the  su- 
premacy of  the  pure  reason.  The  great  Cay- 
ley — who  has  been  given  the  proud  title  of  the 
Darwin  of  the  English  school  of  mathematicians 
— said  a  few  years  ago:1  "I  would  myself  say 
that  the  purely  imaginary  objects  are  the  only 
realities,  the  oVrcos  ovra,  in  regard  to  which 
the  corresponding  physical  objects  are  as  the 
shadows  in  the  cave;  and  it  is  only  by  means 
of  them  that  we  are  able  to  deny  the  existence 
of  a  corresponding  physical  object;  and  if 
there  is  no  conception  of  straightness,  then  it 
is  meaningless  to  deny  the  conception  of  a 
perfectly  straight  line." 

The  physicist,  also,  is  coming  to  see  that  his 
principle  of  the  conservation  of  energy  in  its 

1  Presidential  address,   British  Association  for  the  Advance- 
ment of  Science,  Southport,  1883. 


IS  OF  MOST  WORTH?  53 

various  manifestations  is  a  new  and  startling 
proof  of  the  fundamental  philosophical  prin- 
ciple of  self-activity.  Energy  manifests  itself 
as  motion,  heat,  light,  electricity,  chemical 
action,  sound.  Each  form  of  its  manifestation 
is  transmutable  into  others.  The  self-active 
cycle  is  complete. 

But  it  is  not  from  the  domain  of  natural  sci- 
ence alone  that  illustrations  of  the  all-conquer- 
ing power  of  thought  can  be  drawn.  The 
genius  of  Champollion  has  called  to  life  the 
thoughts  and  deeds  of  Amenotep  and  Rameses; 
and  what  appeared  to  sense  as  rude  decorative 
sketches  on  the  walls  of  temple  and  of  tomb 
are  seen  by  the  understanding  to  be  the  re- 
corded history  of  a  great  civilization  in  the 
valley  of  the  Nile.  The  inscrutable  Sphinx, 
that  watch-dog  of  the  Pyramids,  "unchange- 
able in  the  midst  of  change,"  which  sat  facing 
the  coming  dawn  for  centuries  before  the 
storied  siege  of  Troy,  now  looks  down  on  mod- 
ern men  who  write  the  very  words  of  its  build- 
ers in  the  language  of  Shakspere  and  of  Milton. 
The  cries  of  savage  man,  the  language-symbols 
of  the  early  Aryans,  and  the  multiform  and 
complicated  tongues  of  modern  Europe,  all  so 
seemingly  diverse  to  the  ear  and  to  the  eye, 
have  been  the  foundation  for  the  sure  laws  of 


54  WHAT  KNOWLEDGE 

comparative  philology  that  the  labors  of  Bopp 
and  Grimm  and  Verner  have  erected  upon 
them.  All  these,  and  the  many  triumphs  like 
them,  are  victories  of  insight;  each  marks  a 
new  stage  in  the  conquering  progress  of  the 
reason,  by  which  it  finds  itself  in  every  part 
and  in  every  phase  of  the  cosmos  and  its  life. 

The  insight  as  to  self-activity  and  the  pri- 
macy of  reflective  thought,  I  regard  as  the 
profoundest  that  philosophy  has  to  offer;  and, 
instead  of  being  urged,  as  in  centuries  past,  in 
antagonism  to  the  teachings  of  science,  it  is 
now  becoming  the  joint  conclusion  of  philosophy 
and  science  together.  It  is  thought  that  pul- 
sates in  the  world's  grandest  poetry  and  in 
its  most  exquisite  art.  It  is  the  very  soul  of 
the  verse  of  Homer  and  of  Dante,  of  Shaks- 
pere  and  of  Goethe.  It  makes  the  marble  of 
Phidias  glow  with  life,  and  it  guides  the  hands 
of  Raphael  and  Michael  Angelo  as  they  trace 
their  wondrous  figures  with  the  brush.  It  gives 
immortality  to  the  most  beautiful  of  temples, 
the  Parthenon;  and  it  is  the  inspiration  of  that 
superb  mediaeval  architecture,  which  bears  the 
name  of  the  conquerors  of  Rome,  and  which 
has  given  to  Northern  Europe  its  grandest 
monuments  to  the  religious  aspiration  and 
devotion  of  the  Middle  Ages. 


IS  OF  MOST  WORTH?  55 

What,   then,   does  this  primacy  of  thought  Philosophy 

.~  i        i  •      •        i  •  J         and  education 

signify,  and  what  is  its  bearing  upon  our  edu- 
cational ideals  ?  Obviously  the  possession  of 
a  conclusion  such  as  this,  wrested  from  nature 
by  the  hand  of  science  and  from  history  by 
that  of  philosophy,  must  serve  in  many  ways 
to  guide  us  in  estimating  the  importance  of 
human  institutions  and  of  educational  instru- 
ments. We  cannot  accept  either  of  these, 
without  question,  from  the  hands  of  a  tradition 
to  which  our  modern  philosophy  and  our  mod- 
ern science  were  wholly  unknown;  nor  can  we 
blindly  follow  those  believers  in  a  crude  psy- 
chology who  would  present  us  with  so  many 
mental  faculties  to  be  trained,  each  by  its 
appropriate  formal  exercise,  as  if  they  were 
sticks  of  wood  to  be  shaped  and  reduced  to 
symmetry  and  order.  Mental  life,  as  Wundt 
so  forcibly  says,  "does  not  consist  in  the  con- 
nection of  unalterable  objects  and  varying 
conditions:  in  all  its  phases  it  is  process;  an 
active,  not  a  passive,  existence;  development, 
not  stagnation."  l  Herein  is  mental  life  true 
to  nature.  Like  nature,  it  is  not  fixed,  but 
ever  changing,  and  this  unceasing  change, 
necessary   to   both   growth    and    development, 

1  Lectures  on  Human  and  Animal  Psychology  (New  York,  1894), 
p.  454. 


56 


WHAT  KNOWLEDGE 


Standards  of 
value  in 
knowledge 


gives  to  life  both  its  reality  and  its  pathos. 
It  also  gives  to  education  its  unending  char- 
acter, and  to  mankind  the  clew  to  education's 
wisest  processes. 

The  question  that  I  am  asking — what  knowl- 
edge is  of  most  worth  ? — is  a  very  old  one,  and 
the  answers  to  it  which  have  been  handed  down 
through  the  centuries  are  many  and  various. 
It  is  a  question  which  each  age  must  put  to 
itself,  and  answer  from  the  standpoint  of  its 
deepest  and  widest  knowledge.  The  wisest 
philosophers  have  always  seen,  more  or  less 
clearly,  the  far-reaching  character  of  the  ques- 
tion and  the  great  importance  of  the  answer. 
Socrates  and  Plato,  Augustine  and  Aquinas, 
were  under  no  illusions  as  to  it;  but  often  in 
later  years  the  deeper  questions  relating  to 
the  relative  worth  of  subjects  of  study  have 
been  either  entirely  lost  sight  of  or  very  super- 
ficially dealt  with.  Bacon  clothes  in  attract- 
ive axiomatic  form  some  very  crude  judgments 
as  to  the  relative  worth  of  studies.  Rousseau 
outlines  an  educational  programme  that  ruined 
his  reputation  for  sobriety  of  judgment.  Her- 
bert Spencer  turns  aside  for  a  moment  from 
his  life-work  to  apotheosize  science  in  educa- 
tion, although  science  is,  by  his  own  defini- 
tion, only  partially  unified  knowledge.    Whewell 


75  OF  MOST  WORTH?  57 

exalts  mathematics  in  language  only  less 
extravagant  than  that  in  which  Sir  William ' 
Hamilton  decries  it.  In  similar  fashion,  others, 
holding  a  brief  for  some  particular  phase  or 
department  of  knowledge,  have  come  forward 
crying  Eureka  !  and  proclaiming  that  the  value 
of  all  studies  must  be  measured  in  terms  of 
their  newly  discovered  standard.  The  very 
latest  cry  is  that  studies  and  intellectual  exer- 
cises are  valuable  in  proportion  as  they  stimu- 
late enlarged  brain-areas,  thus  making  the 
appreciation  of  Shakspere,  of  Beethoven,  and 
of  Leonardo  da  Vinci  solely  a  function  of  the 
circulation  of  the  blood. 

But  to  sciolists  of  this  type  philosophy  and  Knowledge 

1  Tf  •      of  the  things 

science  can  now  make  common  answer.  It  it  o{  fhe  spirit 
be  true  that  spirit  and  reason  rule  the  universe, 
then  the  highest  and  most  enduring  knowledge 
is  of  the  things  of  the  spirit.  That  subtle  sense 
of  the  beautiful  and  the  sublime  which  accom- 
panies spiritual  insight,  and  is  part  of  it — this 
is  the  highest  achievement  of  which  humanity 
is  capable.  It  is  typified,  in  various  forms,  in 
the  verse  of  Dante  and  the  prose  of  Thomas 
a  Kempis,  in  the  Sistine  Madonna  of  Raphael, 
and  in  Mozart's  Requiem.  To  develop  this 
sense  in  education  is  the  task  of  art  and  liter- 
ature, to  interpret  it  is  the  work  of  philosophy, 


58  WHAT  KNOWLEDGE 

and  to  nourish  it  the  function  of  religion. 
Because  it  most  fully  represents  the  higher 
nature  of  man,  it  is  man's  highest  possession, 
and  those  studies  that  directly  appeal  to  it 
and  instruct  it  are  beyond  compare  the  most 
valuable.  This  has  been  eloquently  and  beau- 
tifully illustrated  by  Brother  Azarias.  "Take  a 
Raphael  or  a  Murillo,"  he  says.1  "We  gaze 
upon  the  painted  canvas  till  its  beauty  has 
entered  our  soul.  The  splendor  of  the  beauty 
lights  up  within  us  depths  unrevealed,  and  far 
down  in  our  inner  consciousness  we  discover 
something  that  responds  to  the  beauty  on  which 
we  have  been  gazing.  It  is  as  though  a  former 
friend  revealed  himself  to  us.  There  is  here  a 
recognition.  The  more  careful  has  been  our 
sense-culture,  the  more  delicately  have  our 
feelings  been  attuned  to  respond  to  a  thing  of 
beauty  and  find  in  it  a  joy  forever,  all  the 
sooner  and  the  more  intensely  do  we  experi- 
ence this  recognition.  And  therewith  comes  a 
vague  yearning,  a  longing  as  for  something. 
What  does  it  all  mean  ?  The  recognition  is  of 
the  ideal."  Toward  the  full  recognition  and 
appreciation  of  this  insight  into  the  great  works 
of  the  spirit,  whether  recorded  in  literature,  in 
art,   or  in   institutional   life,   higher   education 

1  Phases  of  Thought  and  Criticism  (New  York,  1892),  pp.  57,  58. 


IS  OF  MOST  WORTH?  59 

should  bend  all  its  energies.  The  study  of 
philosophy  itself,  or  the  truly  philosophic  study 
of  any  department  of  knowledge — however  re- 
mote its  beginnings  may  seem  to  be — will 
accomplish  this  end.  The  wajrs  of  approach  to 
this  goal  are  as  many  as  there  are  human  in- 
terests, for  they  are  all  bound  together  in  the 
bonds  of  a  common  origin  and  a  common  pur- 
pose. The  attainment  of  it  is  true  culture,  as 
Matthew  Arnold  has  defined  it:  "the  acquaint- 
ing ourselves  with  the  best  that  has  been 
known  and  said  in  the  world,  and  thus  with 
the  history  of  the  human  spirit."  * 

We  now  come  in  sight  of  the  element  of  Humanism 
truth  and  permanence  in  that  Humanism  which 
Petrarch  and  Erasmus  spread  over  Europe 
with  such  high  hopes  and  excellent  intentions; 
but  which  Sturm,  the  Strassburg  schoolmaster, 
reduced  to  the  dead,  mechanical  forms  and 
the  crude  verbalism  that  bound  the  schools  in 
fetters  for  centuries.  Of  Humanism  itself  we 
may  say,  as  Pater  says  of  the  Renaissance  of 
the  fifteenth  century,  that  "it  was  great  rather 
by  what  it  designed  than  by  what  it  achieved. 
Much  which  it  aspired  to  do,  and  did  but  im- 
perfectly or  mistakenly,  was  accomplished  in 
what  is  called  the  eclair cissement  of  the  eight- 

1  Preface  to  Literature  and  Dogma  (New  York,  1889),  p.  xi. 


and  science 


60  WHAT  KNOWLEDGE 

eenth  century,  or  in  our  own  generation;    and 
what  really  belongs  to  the  revival  of  the  fif- 
teenth century  is  but  the  leading  instinct,  the 
curiosity,  the  initiatory  idea."1 
Humanism  Many  of  the  representative  Humanists  were 

broad-minded  men  whose  sympathies  were  with 
learning  of  every  kind.  Erasmus  himself  writes 
with  enthusiasm  of  other  branches  of  knowl- 
edge than  literature.  "Learning,"  he  says,  "is 
springing  up  all  around  out  of  the  soil;  lan- 
guages, physics,  mathematics,  each  department 
thriving.  Even  theology  is  showing  signs  of 
improvement."2  But  unfortunately  this  broad 
sympathy  with  every  field  of  knowledge  was 
not  yet  wide-spread.  The  wonders  and  splen- 
dor of  nature  that  had  brought  into  existence 
the  earliest  religions  and  the  earliest  philoso- 
phies were  now  feared  and  despised  as  the  basis 
of  paganism;  and  on  wholly  false  grounds  a 
controversy  was  precipitated  as  to  the  relative 
worth  of  literature  and  of  science  that  in  one 
form  or  another  has  continued  down  to  our 
own  day.  The  bitterness  with  which  the  con- 
troversy has  been  carried  on,  and  the  extreme 
positions  assumed  by  the  partisans  of  the  one 
side  or  the  other,  have  concealed  from  view 

'Pater,  The  Renaissance  (New  York,  1888),  p.  34. 

2  Froude,  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus  (New  York,  1894),  p.  186. 


IS  OF  MOST  WORTH?  61 

the  truth  that  we  are  now  able  to  perceive 
clearly — the  truth  that  the  indwelling  reason, 
by  whom  all  things  are  made,  is  as  truly  pres- 
ent, though  in  a  different  order  of  manifesta- 
tion, in  the  world  of  nature  as  in  the  world  of 
spirit.  One  side  of  this  truth  was  expressed  by 
Schelling  when  he  taught  that  nature  is  the 
embryonic  life  of  spirit,  and  by  Froebel  when 
he  wrote:  "The  spirit  of  God  rests  in  nature, 
lives  and  reigns  in  nature,  is  expressed  in  na- 
ture, is  communicated  by  nature,  is  developed 
and  cultivated  in  nature."1  The  controversy 
as  to  the  educational  value  of  science,  so  far, 
at  least,  as  it  concerns  educational  standards 
and  ideals,  is,  then,  an  illusory  one.  It  is  a 
mimic  war,  with  words  alone  as  weapons,  that 
is  fought  either  to  expel  nature  from  education 
or  to  subordinate  all  else  in  education  to  it. 
We  should  rather  say,  in  the  stately  verse  of 
Milton: 

"Accuse  not  Nature:  she  hath  done  her  part; 
Do  thou  but  thine." 

And  that  part  is  surely  to  study  nature  joy- 
fully, earnestly,  reverently,  as  a  mighty  mani- 
festation  of  the   power   and   grandeur   of  the 

1  Education   of  Man,    translated   by   W.  N.   Hailmann  (New 
York,  1887),  p.  154. 


one  of  the 

humanities 


62  WHAT  KNOWLEDGE 

same  spirit  that  finds  expression  in  human 
achievement.  We  must  enlarge,  then,  our 
conception  of  the  humanities,  for  humanity  is 
broader  and  deeper  than  we  have  hitherto  sus- 
pected. It  touches  the  universe  at  many  more 
points  than  one;  and,  properly  interpreted, 
the  study  of  nature  may  be  classed  among  the 
humanities  as  truly  as  the  study  of  language 
itself. 
Science  as  This  conclusion,  which  would  welcome  sci- 

ence with  open  arms  into  the  school  and  util- 
ize its  opportunities  and  advantages  at  every 
stage  of  education,  does  not  mean  that  all 
studies  are  of  equal  educational  value,  or  that 
they  are  mutually  and  indifferently  interchange- 
able, as  are  the  parts  of  some  machines.  It 
means  rather  that  the  study  of  nature  is  en- 
titled to  recognition  on  grounds  similar  to 
those  put  forward  for  the  study  of  literature, 
of  art,  and  of  history.  But  among  themselves 
these  divisions  of  knowledge  fall  into  an  order 
of  excellence  as  educational  material  that  is 
determined  by  their  respective  relations  to  the 
development  of  the  reflective  reason.  The  ap- 
plication of  this  test  must  inevitably  lead  us, 
while  honoring  science  and  insisting  upon  its 
study,  to  place  above  it  the  study  of  history, 
of  literature,  of  art,   and  of  institutional  life. 


IS  OF  MOST  WORTH?  63 

But  these  studies  may  not  for  a  moment  be 
carried  on  without  the  study  of  nature  or  in 
neglect  of  it.  They  are  all  humanities  in  the 
truest  sense,  and  it  is  a  false  philosophy  of 
education  that  would  cut  us  off  from  any  one 
of  them,  or  that  would  deny  the  common 
ground  on  which  they  rest.  In  every  field  of 
knowledge  what  we  are  studying  is  some  law 
or  phase  of  energy,  and  the  original  as  well  as 
the  highest  energy  is  will.  In  the  world  of 
nature  it  is  exhibited  in  one  series  of  forms, 
those  which  produce  the  results  known  to  us 
as  chemical,  physical,  biological;  in  the  history 
of  mankind  it  is  manifested  in  the  forms  of 
feelings,  thoughts,  deeds,  institutions.  Because 
the  elements  of  self-consciousness  and  reflec- 
tion are  present  in  the  latter  series  and  absent 
in  the  former,  it  is  to  these  and  the  knowledge 
of  them  that  we  must  accord  the  first  place  in 
any  table  of  educational  values. 

But  education,  as  Mr.  Froude  has  reminded  Two  aspects 

11  ur\  -j       •      •        1        of  education 

us,1  has  two  aspects.  Un  one  side  it  is  the 
cultivation  of  man's  reason,  the  development 
of  his  spiritual  nature.  It  elevates  him  above 
the  pressure  of  material  interests.  It  makes 
him  superior  to  the  pleasures  and  pains  of  a 
world   which    is    but   his   temporary   home,    in 

1  Short  Studies  on  Great  Subjects  (New  York,  1872),  II,  257. 


64  WHAT  KNOWLEDGE 

filling  his  mind  with  higher  subjects  than  the 
occupations  of  life  would  themselves  provide 
him  with."  It  is  this  aspect  of  education  that 
I  have  been  considering,  for  it  is  from  this 
aspect  that  we  derive  our  inspiration  and  our 
ideals.  "But,"  continues  Mr.  Froude,  "a  life 
of  speculation  to  the  multitude  would  be  a  life 
of  idleness  and  uselessness.  They  have  to 
maintain  themselves  in  industrious  independ- 
ence in  a  world  in  which  it  has  been  said  there 
are  but  three  possible  modes  of  existence — 
begging,  stealing,  and  working;  and  education 
means  also  the  equipping  a  man  with  means 
to  earn  his  own  living."  It  is  this  latter  and 
very  practical  aspect  of  education  that  causes 
us  to  feel  at  times  the  full  force  of  the  ques- 
tion of  worth  in  education.  Immediate  utility 
makes  demands  upon  the  school  which  it  is 
unable  wholly  to  neglect.  If  the  school  is  to 
be  the  training-ground  for  citizenship,  its  prod- 
ucts must  be  usefully  and  soundly  equipped 
as  well  as  well  disciplined  and  well  informed. 
An  educated  proletariat — to  use  the  forcible 
paradox  of  Bismarck — is  a  continual  source  of 
disturbance  and  danger  to  any  nation.  Act- 
ing upon  this  conviction,  the  great  modern 
democracies — and  the  time  seems  to  have 
come  when  a  democracy  may  be  defined  as  a 


IS  OF  MOST  WORTH?  65 

government,  of  any  form,  in  which  public  opin- 
ion habitually  rules — are  everywhere  having  a 
care  that  in  education  provision  be  made  for 
the  practical,  or  immediately  useful.  This  is  as 
it  should  be,  but  it  exposes  the  school  to  a  new 
series  of  dangers  against  which  it  must  guard. 

Utility  is  a  term  that  may  be  given  either  a  The  higher 

,  ,  •  t>i  utilities 

very  broad  or  a  very  narrow  meaning,  lnere 
are  utilities  higher  and  utilities  lower,  and 
under  no  circumstances  will  the  true  teacher 
ever  permit  the  former  to  be  sacrificed  to  the 
latter.  This  would  be  done  if,  in  its  zeal  for 
fitting  the  child  for  self-support,  the  school 
were  to  neglect  to  lay  the  foundation  for  that 
higher  intellectual  and  spiritual  life  which  con- 
stitutes humanity's  full  stature.  This  founda- 
tion is  made  ready  only  if  proper  emphasis 
be  laid,  from  the  kindergarten  to  the  college, 
on  those  studies  whose  subject-matter  is  the 
direct  product  of  intelligence  and  will,  and 
which  can,  therefore,  make  direct  appeal  to 
man's  higher  nature.  The  sciences  and  their 
applications  are  capable  of  use,  even  from  the 
standpoint  of  this  higher  order  of  utilities,  be- 
cause of  the  reason  the}''  exhibit  and  reveal. 
Man's  rational  freedom  is  the  goal,  and  the 
sciences  are  the  lower  steps  on  the  ladder  that 
reaches  to  it. 


66 


WHAT  KNOWLEDGE 


Professor 
Tyndall  on 
science 


A  splendid  confirmation  of  this  view  of  sci- 
ence is  found  in  the  notable  Belfast  address  in 
which  Professor  Tyndall  stormed  the  strong- 
holds of  prejudice  one  and  twenty  years  ago. 
Said  Professor  Tyndall: x 

Science  itself  not  unfrequently  derives  motive  power 
from  an  ultra-scientific  source.  Some  of  its  greatest  dis- 
coveries have  been  made  under  the  stimulus  of  a  non- 
scientific  ideal.  This  was  the  case  amongst  the  ancients, 
and  it  has  been  so  amongst  ourselves.  Mayer,  Joule, 
and  Colding,  whose  names  are  associated  with  the  great- 
est of  modern  generalizations,  were  thus  influenced. 
With  his  usual  insight,  Lange  at  one  place  remarks  that 
"it  is  not  always  the  objectively  correct  and  intelligible 
that  helps  man  most,  or  leads  most  quickly  to  the  fullest 
and  truest  knowledge.  As  the  sliding  body  upon  the 
brachystochrone  reaches  its  end  sooner  than  by  the 
straighter  road  of  the  inclined  plane,  so  through  the  swing 
of  the  ideal  we  often  arrive  at  the  naked  truth  more 
rapidly  than  by  the  more  direct  processes  of  the  under- 
standing." Whewell  speaks  of  enthusiasm  of  temper  as 
a  hindrance  to  science;  but  he  means  the  enthusiasm  of 
weak  heads.  There  is  a  strong  and  resolute  enthusiasm 
in  which  science  finds  an  ally;  and  it  is  to  the  lowering 
of  this  fire,  rather  than  to  the  diminution  of  intellectual 
insight,  that  the  lessening  productiveness  of  men  of  sci- 
ence in  their  mature  years  is  to  be  ascribed.  Mr.  Buckle 
sought  to  detach  intellectual  achievement  from  moral 
force.     He  gravely  erred;    for  without   moral   force   to 

1  Presidential  address,  British  Association  for  the  Advance- 
ment of  Science,  Belfast,  1874. 


IS  OF  MOST  WORTH?  67 

whip  it  into  action,  the  achievements  of  the  intellect 
would  be  poor  indeed. 

It  has  been  said  that  science  divorces  itself  from  liter- 
ature; but  the  statement,  like  so  many  others,  arises 
from  lack  of  knowledge.  A  glance  at  the  less  technical 
writings  of  its  leaders — of  its  Helmholtz,  its  Huxley, 
and  its  du  Bois-Reymond — would  show  what  breadth  of 
literary  culture  they  command.  Where  among  modern 
writers  can  you  find  their  superiors  in  clearness  and  vigor 
of  literary  style  ?  Science  desires  not  isolation,  but  freely 
combines  with  every  effort  toward  the  bettering  of  man's 
estate.  Single-handed,  and  supported  not  by  outward 
sympathy,  but  by  inward  force,  it  has  built  at  least  one 
great  wing  of  the  many-mansioned  home  which  man  in 
his  totality  demands.  And  if  rough  walls  and  protruding 
rafter-ends  indicate  that  on  one  side  the  edifice  is  still 
incomplete,  it  is  only  by  wise  combination  of  the  parts 
required  with  those  already  irrevocably  built  that  we  can 
hope  for  completeness.  There  is  no  necessary  incon- 
gruity between  what  has  been  accomplished  and  what 
remains  to  be  done.  The  moral  glow  of  Socrates,  which 
we  all  feel  by  ignition,  has  in  it  nothing  incompatible  with 
the  physics  of  Anaxagoras  which  he  so  much  scorned,  but 
which  he  would  hardly  scorn  to-day.  .  .  . 

The  world  embraces  not  only  a  Newton,  but  a  Shaks- 
pere — not  only  a  Boyle,  but  a  Raphael — not  only  a  Kant, 
but  a  Beethoven — not  only  a  Darwin,  but  a  Carlyle. 
Not  in  each  of  these,  but  in  all,  is  human  nature  whole. 
They  are  not  opposed,  but  supplementary — not  mutually 
exclusive,  but  reconcilable.  And  if,  unsatisfied  with  them 
all,  the  human  mind,  with  the  yearning  of  a  pilgrim  for 
his  distant  home,  will  still  turn  to  the  Mystery  from  which 
it  has  emerged,  seeking  so  to  fashion  it  as  to  give  unity 


68  WHAT  KNOWLEDGE 

to  thought  and  faith,  so  long  as  this  is  done,  not  only 
without  intolerance  or  bigotry  of  any  kind,  but  with  the 
enlightened  recognition  that  ultimate  fixity  of  conception 
is  here  unattainable,  and  that  each  succeeding  age  must 
be  held  free  to  fashion  the  mystery  in  accordance  with  its 
own  needs — then,  casting  aside  all  the  restrictions  of 
Materialism,  I  would  affirm  this  to  be  a  field  for  the  no- 
blest exercise  of  what,  in  contrast  with  the  knowing 
faculties,  may  be  called  the  creative  faculties  of  man. 

Character  and       Close  as  are  man's  structural  relations  to  the 
the  moral        lower    animals,    his   equipment   is   peculiar  to 

0rder  •  r      i  • 

himself.  The  actions  of  the  lower  animals  are 
conditioned  by  sensations  and  momentary  im- 
pulses. Man,  on  the  other  hand,  is  enabled  to 
raise  himself  above  fleeting  sensations  to  the 
realm  of  ideas,  and  in  that  realm  he  finds  his 
real  life.  Similarly,  man's  will  gradually  frees 
itself  from  bondage  to  a  chain  of  causes  deter- 
mined for  it  from  without,  and  attains  to  a 
power  of  independent  self-determination  ac- 
cording to  durable  and  continuing  ends  of 
action.  This  constitutes  character,  which,  in 
Emerson's  fine  phrase,  is  the  moral  order  seen 
through  the  medium  of  an  individual  nature. 
Freedom  of  the  will  is  not,  then,  a  metaphys- 
ical notion,  nor  is  it  obtained  from  nature  or 
seen  in  nature.  It  is  a  development  in  the  life 
of  the  human  soul.  Freedom  and  rationality 
are  two  names  for  the  same  thing,  and  their 


IS  OF  MOST  WORTH?  69 

highest  development  is  the  end  of  human  life. 
This  development  is  not,  as  Locke  thought,  a 
process  arising  without  the  mind  and  acting 
upon  it,  a  passive  and  pliable  recipient.  Much 
less  is  it  one  that  could  be  induced  in  the 
hypothetical  statue  of  Condillac  and  Bonnet. 
It  is  the  very  life  of  the  soul  itself. 

There  is  a  striking  passage  in  The  Marble  Education  as 
Faun  in  which  Hawthorne  suggests  the  idea  B^^ 
that  the  task  of  the  sculptor  is  not,  by  carv- 
ing, to  impress  a  figure  upon  the  marble,  but 
rather,  by  the  touch  of  genius,  to  set  free  the 
glorious  form  that  the  cold  grasp  of  the  stone 
imprisons.  With  similar  insight,  Browning  puts 
these  words  into  the  mouth  of  his  Paracelsus: 

"Truth  is  within  ourselves;  it  takes  no  rise 
From  outward  things,  whate'er  you  may  believe. 
There  is  an  inmost  centre  in  us  all, 
Where  truth  abides  in  fulness;  and  around, 
Wall  upon  wall,  the  gross  flesh  hems  it  in, 
This  perfect,  clear  perception.  .  .  . 

.  .  .  And,  to  know, 
Rather  consists  in  opening  out  a  way 
Whence  the  imprisoned  splendor  may  escape, 
Than  in  effecting  entry  for  a  light 
Supposed  to  be  without." 

This  is  the  poetical  form  of  the  truth  that  I 
believe  is  pointed  to  by  both  philosophy  and 


70  WHAT  KNOWLEDGE 

science.  It  offers  us  a  sure  standing-ground 
for  our  educational  theory.  It  reveals  to  us, 
not  as  an  hypothesis  but  as  a  fact,  education 
as  spiritual  growth  toward  intellectual  and 
moral  perfection,  and  saves  us  from  the  peril 
of  viewing  it  as  an  artificial  process  according 
to  mechanical  formulas.  Finally,  it  assures  us 
that  while  no  knowledge  is  worthless — for  it 
all  leads  us  back  to  the  common  cause  and 
ground  of  all — yet  that  knowledge  is  of  most 
worth  which  stands  in  closest  relation  to  the 
highest  forms  of  the  activity  of  that  spirit 
which  is  created  in  the  image  of  Him  who  holds 
nature  and  man  alike  in  the  hollow  of  his  hand. 


IV 

IS  THERE  A  NEW  EDUCATION? 


Presidential  address  before  the  Association  of  Colleges 
and  Preparatory  Schools  of  the  Middle  States  and 
Maryland,  at  Easton,  Pennsylvania,  November  29, 
I89S 


IS  THERE  A  NEW  EDUCATION? 

The  title  of  this  discussion  is  designedly 
thrown  into  the  form  of  a  question.  Its  pur- 
pose is  to  provoke,  if  possible,  a  difference  of 
opinion — always  a  healthier  and  more  produc- 
tive intellectual  state  than  the  dull  mediocrity 
of  agreement.  Difference  of  opinion  begets 
doubt,  doubt  begets  inquiry,  and  inquiry  even- 
tually leads  to  truth.     Virgil's  fine  line, 

Felix  qui  potuit  rerum  cognoscere  causas, 

is  profoundly  true;  but  more  fortunate  still  is 
he  who  comes  to  his  knowledge  by  the  sure 
method  of  honest  doubt. 

For  a  generation  we  have  been  doing  lip-  Evolution  and 
service  to  the  doctrine  of  evolution;  but  only 
with  great  slowness  and  difficulty  do  old  forms 
of  speech  and  old  habits  of  mind  fit  themselves 
to  a  new  point  of  view  that  makes  so  strong  an 
appeal  both  to  our  reason  and  to  our  imagina- 
tion. In  no  department  of  knowledge  is  this 
more  true  than  in  the  field  of  education.  Edu- 
cation is  essentially  a  conservative  process;  it 
cherishes  its  time-worn  instruments  and  reveres 

73 


74         IS  THERE  A  NEW  EDUCATION? 

its  time-honored  standards.  The  treasures  of 
the  mind  are  too  precious  to  be  lightly  exposed 
to  the  loss  or  harm  that  might  come  to  them 
through  change.  Yet  the  opinion  has  found 
lodgment  among  our  craft  that  after  all,  and 
despite  the  excellence  of  old  methods  and  old 
standards,  the  educational  theory  and  practise 
of  a  given  age  or  generation  must  stand  in  close 
relation  to  its  intellectual  and  ethical  ideals, 
and  to  the  material  fabric  of  its  civilization: 
and  surely  all  three  of  these  habitually  vary, 
not  only  over  long  periods  but  in  relatively 
short  intervals  of  time.  It  is  a  grave  matter 
for  the  teacher  if  virtue  is  identical  with  knowl- 
edge, as  Socrates  taught;  or  if  it  is  the  result 
of  habit,  as  Aristotle  held;  or  if  it  is  the  cun- 
ning invention  of  rulers,  as  Mandeville  sug- 
gested; or  if  it  is  mere  skill  in  calculating  the 
chances  of  pleasure  and  pain,  as  Bentham  laid 
down.  It  is  important,  too,  primarily  for  the 
higher  education,  but  eventually  for  the  lower 
schools  as  well,  if  our  intellectual  ideal  is  rep- 
resented by  the  active  mind  of  a  Leibniz  or  a 
Gladstone,  with  its  immense  energy  and  broad 
range  of  interests;  or  if  it  is  better  typified  by 
the  narrow,  plodding  specialization  of  a  Darwin 
or  of  those  Teutonic  philologers  who  are  un- 
duly   distracted    if  their   investigations   cover 


IS  THERE  A  NEW  EDUCATION?         75 

more  than  the  gerund  or  the  dative  case.  Still 
more  directly  must  our  education  depend  upon 
the  material  equipment  of  the  time.  In  this 
day  of  innumerable  printing-presses,  with  a 
power  of  production  sadly  out  of  proportion  to 
their  power  of  discrimination,  it  is  quite  incon- 
ceivable that  we  should  not  find  ourselves 
forced  to  con  anew  the  grounds  on  which  rest 
the  principles  and  methods  that  have  come 
down  to  us  from  the  age  of  manuscripts  and 
pack-saddles.  Such  a  process  of  questioning 
has  been  under  way  for  some  time  past,  and 
has  contributed  in  no  small  degree  to  that 
marvellous  enthusiasm  for  education  and  to 
that  belief  in  it,  the  evidences  of  which  are  to 
be  seen  on  every  hand. 

There  are  three  avenues  of  scientific  ap-  study  of 
proach  to  the  study  of  education,  and  in  each  *  g°jen°e  " 
of  them  the  evolutionary  point  of  view  is  not 
only  illuminating  but  controlling.  These  three 
avenues  are  the  physiological,  the  psycholog- 
ical, and  the  sociological.  Their  points  of  con- 
tact are  many  and  their  interrelations  are 
close.  Modern  psychology  has  already  given 
up  the  attempt  to  treat  mental  life  without 
reference  to  its  physical  basis;  and  it  will 
sooner  or  later  regard  any  interpretation  as  in- 
complete that  does  not  relate  the  individual  to 


76         IS  THERE  A  NEW  EDUCATION? 

what  may  be  called  the  social  life  or  conscious- 
ness. Man's  institutional  life  is  as  much  a 
part  of  his  real  self  as  his  physical  existence 
or  his  mental  constitution.  Robinson  Crusoe 
is,  in  one  of  the  catch  phrases  of  the  day,  a 
barren  ideality. 

It  must  be  admitted  that  this  point  of  view 
is  both  very  old  and  very  new.  It  is  very  old, 
for  it  was  Aristotle  himself  who  wrote:  "Man 
is  by  nature  a  political  animal.  And  he 'who 
by  nature,  and  not  by  mere  accident,  is  with- 
out a  state,  is  either  above  humanity  or  below 
it."1  It  is  also  very  new,  for  it  is  in  flat  con- 
tradiction to  the  doctrine  of  Rousseau:  "Com- 
pelled to  oppose  nature  or  our  social  institutions, 
we  must  choose  between  making  a  man  and  a 
citizen,  for  we  cannot  make  both  at  once"2 — 
the  crudeness  and  superficiality  of  which  have 
not  prevented  it  from  exercising  a  wide  and 
long-continued  influence.  Modern  philosophy 
confirms  here,  as  so  often,  the  analysis  of  Aris- 
totle; and  it  rejects,  as  is  becoming  customary, 
the  extreme  individualism  of  the  later  eight- 
eenth century.  The  significance  of  this  for  our 
educational  theory  is  all-important. 

1  The  Politics  of  Aristotle  (Oxford,  1885),  I,  2,  Jowett's  transla- 
tion, p.  4. 

2  Rousseau's  £mile  (New  York,  1893),   translated  by  W.  H. 
Payne,  p.  5. 


IS  THERE  A  NEW  EDUCATION?         77 

Returning  now  to  the  first  of  the  three  pil-  The 
lars  on  which  the  modern  study  of  education  p^81^10^0*1 

j  aspect 

rests — the  physiological — it  may  be  useful  to 
recall  briefly  what  consideration  has  been  given 
to  it  in  the  past.  All  of  the  older  culture- 
nations  laid  stress  upon  it,  and  some  of  them 
dealt  with  it  in  systematic  fashion.  But  the 
Greeks  alone  understood  the  educational  value 
of  play.  Their  great  national  games  combined 
systematic  physical  training  and  play  in  a  way 
that  we  have  not  yet  succeeded  in  equalling. 
The  ascetic  ideal  that  ruled  the  schools  of  the 
Middle  Ages  left  no  place  for  a  continuance  of 
the  Greek  practise,  and  it  was  forgotten.  We 
find  ourselves  to-day  struggling  to  imitate  it. 
In  Germany  systematic  physical  training  is 
made  much  of  in  education,  but  genuine  play 
is  not  prominent.  In  England,  on  the  con- 
trary, play  has  been  found  so  successful  in  de- 
veloping strength  and  suppleness  of  body  and 
sturdy,  independent  character  that  anything 
approaching  systematic,  formal  training  is  re- 
garded as  almost  unnecessary.  In  this  country 
the  present  tendency  is  to  develop  both  ele- 
ments, after  the  fashion  of  the  Greeks;  and  it 
is  to  be  hoped  that  the  outcome  will  be  even 
more  satisfactory  than  it  was  at  Athens  and  at 
Corinth. 


78         IS  THERE  A  NEW  EDUCATION? 

But  physical  and  physiological  considera- 
tions cut  far  deeper  than  this.  They  demand 
a  hearing  when  we  have  under  discussion 
questions  of  school  hours  and  recesses,  of  pro- 
grammes and  tasks,  of  school  furniture,  of 
text-books  and  blackboards,  of  light,  heat,  and 
fresh  air.  On  all  of  these  topics  we  have  re- 
cently learned  much  that  has  not  yet  found 
its  way  into  our  practise.  College  faculties  and 
school-teachers,  framers  of  examination  tests, 
donors  of  laboratories  and  dormitories,  and, 
most  of  all,  architects  are  as  a  rule  oblivious 
to  the  vital  interest  that  the  pupil  has  in  mat- 
ters of  this  kind.  Considerations  of  tradition, 
convenience,  cost,  and  external  appearance  are 
allowed  full  swing,  and  the  growing  youth 
must  fit  the  Procrustean  bed  as  best  they  can. 
The  signs  of  malnutrition  and  weakness,  as 
described,  for  example,  by  Warner,  and  the 
laws  of  mental  and  physical  fatigue,  as  arrived 
at  by  such  investigations  as  those  of  Mosso  and 
of  Burgerstein,  are  about  as  familiar  to  teach- 
ers in  college  and  in  preparatory  schools  as  are 
the  Laws  of  Manu.  And  yet  they  affect  vitally 
every  young  man  or  young  woman  who  enters 
a  schoolroom  or  a  college.  No  amount  of  thun- 
dering eloquence  on  the  value  of  the  ancient 
classics,  no  emphasis  on  character  as  the  sole 


IS  THERE  A  NEW  EDUCATION?         70 

end  of  education  can  make  amends  for  our 
failure  to  study  the  facts  dealing  with  the 
physical  and  physiological  elements  in  educa- 
tion, and  for  our  delay  in  applying  them.  We 
need  to  be  strongly  reminded  that  wickedness 
is  closely  akin  to  weakness,  and  then  to  con- 
sider the  moral  consequences  of  our  physiolog- 
ical ignorance.1 

The  relation  of  psychology  to  education  is  The 
the  one  subject  on  which  the  teacher  of  to-day  ^syc  °oglc 
is  supposed  to  be  informed.  Normal  schools 
without  number,  and  here  and  there  a  college, 
give  definite  instruction  in  the  subject.  Yet 
a  careful  inspection  of  the  most  popular  text- 
books in  use,  and  visits  to  some  hundreds  of 
classrooms,  have  convinced  me  that  the  results 
of  this  knowledge,  if  it  exists,  are,  in  the  field 
of  secondary  and  higher  education,  almost  nil. 
In  this  respect  the  elementary  teacher  is  far  in 
advance.  Perhaps  no  secondary  school  or  col- 
lege in  America  can  show  teaching  to  compare 
in  mastery  of  scientific  method,  and  in  tech- 
nical skill,  with  the  best  teaching  to  be  seen 
in  many  of  the  public  elementary  schools,  par- 
ticularly in  the  Western  States.  In  conse- 
quence  of  this,   we   may   safely   assume   that 

'Compare    "Moral    Education    and    Will-Training,"    by    G. 
Stanley  Hall,  in  Pedagogical  Seminary,  II,  72-89. 


80         IS  THERE  A  NEW  EDUCATION? 

pupils  fresh  from  the  vigorous  intellectual  and 
moral  growth  of  a  well-conducted  elementary 
school  will  turn  aside  from  the  machine  meth- 
ods and  dull,  uninspiring  class-exercises  of  our 
average  academy  with  disgust.  The  new  edu- 
cational life-blood  is  flowing  most  freely  and 
vigorously  in  the  veins  of  the  elementary 
teacher.  Here  and  there  a  secondary  school- 
master, and  here  and  there  a  college  president 
or  professor,  takes  a  genuine  and  intelligent 
interest  in  education  for  its  own  sake;  but  the 
vast  majority  know  nothing  of  it,  and  are  but 
little  affected  by  it.  They  are  content  to  ac- 
cumulate what  they  are  pleased  to  term  "ex- 
perience"; but  their  relation  to  education  is 
just  that  of  the  motorman  on  a  trolley-car  to 
the  science  of  electricity.  They  use  it;  but  of 
its  nature,  principles,  and  processes  they  are 
Limitations  profoundly  ignorant.  The  one  qualification 
in  teacMng"  most  t0  De  feared  in  a  teacher,  and  the  one  to 
be  most  carefully  inquired  into,  is  this  same 
"experience"  when  it  stands  alone.  I  am  pro- 
foundly distrustful  of  it.  The  pure  empiricist 
never  can  have  any  genuine  experience,  any 
more  than  an  animal,  because  he  is  unable  to 
interrogate  the  phenomena  that  present  them- 
selves to  him,  and  hence  is  unable  to  under- 
stand them.     The  scientific  teacher,  the  the- 


IS  THERE  A  NEW  EDUCATION?         81 

orist,  on  the  contrary,  asks  what  manner  of 
phenomena  these  are  that  are  before  him, 
what  are  their  inner  relations,  and  the  prin- 
ciples on  which  they  are  based.  This,  of 
course,  is  the  first  great  step,  taken  by  all  sci- 
entific method,  toward  a  knowledge  of  causes. 
It  is  at  this  point  that  we  reach  the  real  reason 
for  the  need  of  an  accurate  knowledge  of  psy- 
chology on  the  part  of  the  teacher.  His  deal- 
ings in  the  schoolroom  are  primarily  with  men- 
tal processes  and  mental  growth.  Unless  these 
are  scientifically  studied  and  understood,  or — 
and  this  does  not  happen  often — unless  natural 
psychological  insight  comes  to  the  rescue  of 
psychological  ignorance,  the  teaching  is  bound 
to  be  mechanical;  and  the  longer  it  is  con- 
tinued, the  more  "experience"  is  acquired, 
and  the  more  wooden  and  mechanical  it  be- 
comes. 

A  short  time  ago  I  was  present  at  an  exer- 
cise in  modern  history,  given  to  an  undergrad- 
uate class  averaging  over  eighteen  years  of  age, 
in  one  of  our  Eastern  colleges.  The  text- 
book in  the  hands  of  the  students  was  of  a 
very  elementary  character,  and  is  much  used 
in  public  high  schools,  both  East  and  West. 
The  teacher  was  a  college  graduate,  and  had 
held    his    position    for    several    years.     These 


82         75  THERE  A  NEW  EDUCATION? 

years  had  been  years  of  "experience,"  and 
would  have  been  strongly  urged  as  an  impor- 
tant qualification  had  his  name  been  under 
consideration  for  promotion  or  for  transfer  to 
another  institution.  Yet  the  entire  hour  that 
I  spent  in  his  class  was  given  up  to  the  dicta- 
tion of  an  abstract  of  the  text-book.  This,  he 
told  me,  was  his  usual  method.  The  students 
took  down  the  dictation,  word  for  word,  in  a 
dull,  listless  way,  and  gave  a  sigh  of  mingled 
despair  and  relief  when  it  came  to  an  end. 
This  process  went  on  several  times  weekly  for 
either  one  or  two  years.  I  ascertained  from 
the  instructor  that  he  called  it  "hammering 
the  facts  home."  He  is,  for  aught  I  know, 
"hammering"  yet,  and  now  has  some  additional 
"experience"  to  his  credit.  So  have  his  pupils. 
No  amount  of  psychological  learning  could 
make  it  impossible  for  the  inquirer  to  find 
cases  like  this,  and  the  hundreds  of  others  of 
which  they  are  typical,  in  the  schools  and  col- 
leges; but  a  psychological  training  on  the  part 
of  the  teacher  would  go  far  to  diminish  their 
number.  Professor  Royce  pointed  out1  sev- 
eral years  ago  that  what  the  teacher  has  chiefly 
to  gain   from   the  study  of  psychology  is  not 

'"Is  There  a  Science  of  Education?"  in  Educational  Review, 
(New  York,  1891),  I,  15-25;  121-132. 


IS  THERE  A  NEW  EDUCATION?         83 

rules  of  procedure,  but  the  psychological  spirit. 
The  teacher,  he  adds,  should  be  a  naturalist 
and  cultivate  the  habit  of  observing  the  men- 
tal life  of  his  pupils  for  its  own  sake.  In  this 
he  will  follow  the  method  common  to  all  natu- 
ralists: "What  is  here  in  this  live  thing  ?  Why- 
does  it  move  thus  ?  What  is  it  doing  ?  What 
feelings  does  it  appear  to  have  ?  What  type 
of  rudimentary  intelligence  is  it  showing?" 
Such  questions  as  these  form  the  habit  of 
watching  minds,  and  of  watching  them  closely. 
This  habit  is  the  surest  road  to  good  teaching, 
and  its  formation  is  the  best  service  that  psy- 
chology can  render  to  the  classroom.  Until  a 
teacher  has  acquired  that  habit  and  subordi- 
nated his  schoolroom  procedure  to  it,  he  is 
not  teaching  at  all;  at  best  he  is  either  lectur- 
ing or  hearing  recitations. 

We  are  chiefly  indebted  to  the  students  and  The  doctrines 
followers    of    Herbart    for    the    present    wide-  °fHerba^: 

r  Apperception 

spread  interest  in  this  country  in  two  psycho-  and  interest 

logical    doctrines    of   the    greatest    importance 

for  all  teaching — the  doctrine  of  apperception 

and  the  doctrine  of  interest.     The  former  has 

to  do  with  mental  assimilation,  the  latter  with 

the  building  of  character  and  ideals.     I  know 

of  no  more  fruitful  field  for  the  application  of 

both   of  these  than  the  freshman  year  of  the 


84         IS  THERE  A  NEW  EDUCATION? 

college  course.  My  observation  has  taught 
me  that  the  work  of  the  freshman  class  in 
college  is,  as  a  rule,  very  ineffective.  College 
teachers  who  admit  this  fact  are  in  the  habit 
of  accounting  for  it  by  alleging  the  difficulty  of 
welding  into  a  homogeneous  mass  the  new  stu- 
dents of  different  advantages,  training,  and 
mental  habits.  The  task  is  more  than  diffi- 
cult; it  is  impossible,  and  ought  never  to  be 
attempted,  much  less  encouraged.  That  it 
goes  on  year  after  year  in  a  hundred  colleges 
is  due  to  the  strait-jacket  system  of  class 
teaching,  by  which  we  defy  the  rules  of  God 
and  man  to  the  glory  of  what,  in  our  profes- 
sional cant,  we  call  "sound  education."  If 
we  could  secure  a  hearing  for  the  doctrine  of 
apperception,  all  this  would  be  changed.  We 
should  then  recognize  in  our  practise  as  we  do 
in  our  faith  that  the  mind  is  not  a  passive  re- 
cipient of  the  impressions  that  reach  it;  that 
it  reacts  upon  them,  colors  them,  and  makes 
them  a  part  of  itself  in  accordance  with  the 
tendency,  the  point  of  view,  and  the  posses- 
sions that  it  already  has.  This  tendency,  this 
point  of  view,  and  these  possessions  differ  in 
the  case  of  every  individual.  Instead  of  over- 
looking or  seeking  to  annul  these  differences, 
we    should    first    understand    them    and    then 


IS  THERE  A  NEW  EDUCATION?         85 

base  our  teaching  upon  them.  If  the  first 
month  of  freshman  year  were  spent  in  care- 
fully ascertaining  the  stage  of  development, 
in  power  and  acquirement,  that  each  pupil 
had  reached,  it  would  be  possible  so  to  order 
and  adjust  the  work  of  the  year  as  to  make 
it  useful  and  educative.  I  have  known  case 
after  case  in  which  the  opposite  policy  of 
treating  all  upon  one  plane,  and  making  the 
same  demands  upon  all,  has  made  a  college 
course  a  source  of  positive  harm;  it  also  ac- 
counts, in  greater  measure  than  we  are  aware 
of,  for  the  large  proportion  of  students  who 
fall  away  at  the  end  of  the  freshman  and  soph- 
omore years.  Yet  so  long  as  college  teachers 
know  so  little  psychology  as  to  cling  to  the  old 
dogma  of  formal  discipline — which  adds  to 
real  value  some  very  distinct  limitations — and 
continue  to  pound  away  on  so  much  mathe- 
matics to  train  the  reasoning  powers  and  so 
much  Greek  grammar  to  train  something  else, 
regardless  of  the  content  of  the  instruction 
and  of  all  other  considerations — just  so  long 
will  one  mind  be  lost  or  injured  for  every  one 
that  is  saved  or  benefited.  As  Colonel  Parker 
has  so  forcibly  said:  "We  dwell  on  those  who 
have  been  saved  by  our  older  methods,  but 
who  has  counted  the  lost?" 


86         IS  THERE  A  NEW  EDUCATION? 

The  situation  is  not  very  different  with  re- 
spect to  the  doctrine  of  interest.  We  continu- 
ally complain  that  valuable  and  necessary  in- 
struction given  in  school  and  in  college  is 
forgotten,  that  it  is  not  retained,  not  extended, 
and  not  applied.  The  fault  lies  partly,  no 
doubt,  with  the  pupils,  but  largely  with  our- 
selves. We  have  still  to  learn  what  interest 
means,  how  it  is  changed  from  indirect  to 
direct,  and  how  it  is  built  up  into  a  permanent 
element  of  character.  We  are  inexperienced  in 
seeking  out  and  seizing  upon  the  present  and 
temporary  interests  of  the  student,  and  in 
using  them  as  a  factor  in  training.  It  is  a 
common  thing  to  hear  it  said  that  since  life  is 
full  of  obstacles  and  character  is  strengthened 
by  overcoming  them,  so  the  school  and  college 
course  should  not  hesitate  to  compel  students 
to  do  distasteful  and  difficult  things  simply 
because  they  are  distasteful  and  difficult.  I 
do  not  hesitate  to  say  that  I  believe  that  doc- 
trine to  be  profoundly  immoral  and  its  conse- 
quences calamitous.  But,  it  is  answered,  you 
certainly  would  not  trust  to  a  student's  whims 
and  allow  him  to  do  or  not  do  as  he  pleases. 
Certainly  not;  and  that  is  not  the  alternative. 
The  proper  and  scientific  course  is  to  search 
for  the  pupil's  empirical  and  natural  interests, 


IS  THERE  A  NEW  EDUCATION?         87 

and  to  build  upon  them.  This  is  not  always 
easy;  it  requires  knowledge,  patience,  and 
skill.  It  is  far  easier  to  treat  the  entire  class 
alike  and  to  drive  them  over  the  hurdles  set 
by  a  single  required  course  of  study,  in  the 
vain  hope  that  the  weak  and  timid  will  not  be 
injured  as  much  as  the  strong  and  confident 
will  be  benefited,  and  that  somehow  or  other 
the  algebraic  sum  of  the  results  of  the  process 
will  bear  a  positive  sign.  I  earnestly  com- 
mend to  every  teacher  the  study  of  these  two 
principles,  apperception  and  interest.  I  do  so 
in  the  firm  belief  that  the  practical  result  of 
that  study  would  be  an  immense  uplifting  of 
the  teaching  efficiency  of  every  educational 
institution  in  the  United  States. 

What,  for  lack  of  a  better  term,  I  call  the  The 
sociological  aspect  of  education  is,  in  many  aspect*5"1 
respects,  the  most  important  of  all.  Under 
this  head  are  to  be  put  such  questions  as  those 
that  deal  with  the  aim  and  limits  of  education, 
its  relation  to  the  state,  its  organization  and 
administration,  and  the  course  of  study  to  be 
pursued.  I  can  now  refer  to  but  a  single  one 
of  these  topics.  Doctor  Harris,  in  the  opening 
paragraphs  of  his  well-known  report  on  the 
correlation  of  studies,  dealt  a  final  blow  to  the 
idea  that  the  course  of  study  is  to  be  settled 


88         75  THERE  A  NEW  EDUCATION? 

either  by  tradition  or  by  conditions  wholly 
psychological.  "The  game  of  chess,"  he  points 
out,1  "would  furnish  a  good  course  of  study 
for  the  discipline  of  the  powers  of  attention 
and  calculation  of  abstract  combinations,  but 
it  would  give  its  possessor  little  or  no  knowl- 
edge of  man  or  nature.  .  .  .  Psychology  of 
both  kinds,  physiological  and  introspective, 
can  hold  only  a  subordinate  place  in  the  set- 
tlement of  questions  relating  to  the  correla- 
tion of  studies."  He  also  shows  that  the  chief 
consideration  to  which  all  others  are  to  be 
subordinated  is  the  "requirement  of  the  civili- 
zation into  which  the  child  is  born,  as  deter- 
mining not  only  what  he  shall  study  in  school, 
but  what  habits  and  customs  he  shall  be 
taught  in  the  family  before  the  school  age 
arrives;  as  well  as  that  he  shall  acquire  a 
skilled  acquaintance  with  some  one  of  a  def- 
inite series  of  trades,  professions,  or  vocations 
in  the  years  that  follow  school;  and,  further- 
more, that  this  question  of  the  relation  of  the 
pupil  to  his  civilization  determines  what  polit- 
ical duties  he  shall  assume  and  what  religious 
faith  or  spiritual  aspirations  shall  be  adopted 
for  the  conduct  of  his  life."2 

1  Report  of  the  Committee  of  Fifteen  on  Elementary  Education 
(New  York,  1895),  p.  42. 

2  Ibid.,  p.  41. 


IS  THERE  A  NEW  EDUCATION?         89 

It  is  at  this  point  that  the  study  of  educa- 
tion from  the  sociological  point  of  view  begins. 
Instead  of  forcing  the  course  of  study  to  suit 
the  necessities  of  some  preconceived  system  of 
educational  organization,  it  should  determine 
and  control  that  organization  absolutely.  Were 
this  done,  the  troubles  of  the  secondary  school, 
the  Cinderella  of  our  educational  s}rstem,  would 
disappear.  Just  at  present  it  is  jammed  into 
the  space  left  between  the  elementary  school 
and  the  college,  without  any  rational  and  or- 
dered relation  to  either. 

The  ever-present  problem  of  college  entrance  Barrier 

t  •  r    •    1  11  1  between 

is  purely  artihcial,  and  has  no  business  to  ex-  secondary 
ist  at  all.     We  have  ingeniously  created  it,  and  school  and 

collssc 

are  much  less  ingeniously  trying  to  solve  it. 
Leibniz  might  have  said  that  mental  develop- 
ment, as  well  as  nature,  never  makes  leaps.  It 
is  constant  and  continuous.  The  idea  that 
there  is  a  great  gulf  fixed  between  the  sixteenth 
and  seventeenth  years,  or  between  the  seven- 
teenth and  eighteenth,  which  only  a  supreme 
effort  can  bridge,  is  a  mere  superstition  that 
not  even  age  can  make  respectable.  It  ought 
to  be  as  easy  and  as  natural  for  the  student 
to  pass  from  the  secondary  school  to  the  college 
as  it  is  for  him  to  pass  from  one  class  to  an- 
other in  the  school  or  in  the  college.     In  like 


90         IS  THERE  A  NEW  EDUCATION? 

fashion,  the  work  and  methods  of  the  one 
ought  to  lead  easily  and  gradually  to  those  of 
the  other.  That  they  do  not  do  so  in  the  edu- 
cational systems  of  France  and  Germany  is 
one  of  the  main  defects  of  those  systems. 
The  American  college  as  a  school  of  broad  and 
liberal  education,  a  place  where  studies  are 
carried  on  with  reference  to  their  general  and 
more  far-reaching  relations,  is  indispensable 
for  the  very  reason  that  it  permits  and  encour- 
ages the  expansion  and  development  of  school 
work  in  the  widest  possible  way,  before  the 
narrow  specialization  of  the  university  is  en- 
tered upon.  Happily,  there  are  in  the  United 
States  no  artificial  obstacles  interposed  between 
the  college  and  the  university.  We  make  it 
very  easy  to  pass  from  the  one  to  the  other; 
the  custom  is  to  accept  any  college  degree  for 
just  what  it  means.  We  make  it  equally  easy 
to  pass  from  one  grade  or  class  to  another,  and 
from  elementary  school  to  secondary  school, 
the  presumption  always  being  that  the  pupils 
are  ready  and  competent  to  go  forward.  The 
barrier  between  secondary  school  and  college 
is  the  only  one  that  we  insist  upon  retaining. 
It  is  not  necessary  to  dispense  with  the 
highly  valuable  college-admission  examination 
if  that  examination  can  be  properly  organized 


IS  THERE  A  NEW  EDUCATION?         91 

and  conducted.  To  do  this  will  require,  first, 
a  general  agreement  upon  the  definitions  of 
the  various  subjects  a  knowledge  of  which 
must  or  may  be  offered  for  admission  to  col- 
lege, and  an  arrangement  by  which  secondary- 
school  teachers  and  college  teachers  shall  co- 
operate both  in  framing  such  definitions,  in 
formulating  the  scope  and  details  of  the  exam- 
inations, and  in  rating  the  performances  of  the 
candidates.  Under  these  circumstances,  the 
college-admission  examination  might  be  made 
a  very  important  educational  instrument,  of 
value  not  alone  to  the  college,  but  to  the  sec- 
ondary school  as  well.  This  principle  of  co-op- 
eration between  secondary  school  and  college 
in  formulating  conditions  of  college  admis- 
sion and  in  administering  the  college-admission 
examination  does  not  involve  any  restriction 
upon  the  number  or  variety  of  secondary-school 
subjects  that  may  be  accepted  in  partial  ful- 
filment of  the  requirements  for  admission  to 
any  particular  college.1 

Public  opinion  itself,  despite  the  protests  of  The 
the  pundits  of  the  faculties,  is  forcing  an  ex-  0f^ee^fse 
tension  of  the  course  of  study.     It  is  one  of  of  study 
the  best  bits  of  grim  humor  that  our  American 

1  This  important  -  f^-rn  has  now  been  admirably  accomplished 
by  the  College  Entrance  Examination  Board,  whose  offices  are 
in  New  York. 


92         75  THERE  A  NEW  EDUCATION? 

practise,  inherited  from  the  mother  country, 
affords,  that  the  designation  "liberal"  has 
come  to  be  claimed  as  the  sole  prerogative  of 
a  very  narrow  and  technical  course  of  study 
that  was  invented  for  a  very  narrow  and  tech- 
nical purpose,  and  that  has  been  very  imper- 
fectly liberalized  in  the  intervening  centuries. 
It  ought  to  soften  somewhat  the  asperity  of 
teachers  of  Greek  to  remember  that  the  very 
arguments  by  which  they  are  in  the  habit  of 
resisting  the  inroads  of  the  modern  languages, 
the  natural  sciences,  and  economics,  were  used 
not  so  many  hundreds  of  years  ago  to  keep 
Greek  itself  from  edging  its  way  into  the  cur- 
riculum at  all.  Paulsen  is  indubitably  right  in 
his  insistence  upon  the  fact  that  the  modern 
world  has  developed  a  culture  of  its  own, 
which,  while  an  outgrowth  of  the  culture  of 
antiquity,  is  quite  distinct  from  it.  It  is  to 
this  modern  culture  that  our  education  must 
lead.  The  first  question  to  be  asked  of  any 
course  of  study  is:  Does  it  lead  to  a  knowl- 
edge of  our  contemporary  civilization  ?  If 
not,  it  is  neither  efficient  nor  liberal. 

In  society  as  it  exists  to-day  the  dominant 
note,  running  through  all  of  our  struggles  and 
problems,  is  economic — what  the  old  Greeks 
might  have  called  political.     Yet  it  is  a  con- 


IS  THERE  A  NEW  EDUCATION?         93 

stant  fight  to  get  any  proper  teaching  from 
the  economic  and  social  point  of  view  put  be- 
fore high-school  and  college  students.  They 
are  considered  too  young  or  too  immature  to 
study  such  recondite  subjects,  although  the 
nice  distinctions  between  the  Greek  moods 
and  tenses  and  the  principles  of  conic  sections, 
with  their  appeal  to  the  highly  trained  mathe- 
matical imagination,  are  their  daily  food.  As 
a  result,  thousands  of  young  men  and  young 
women,  who  have  neither  the  time,  the  money, 
nor  the  desire  for  a  university  career,  are  sent 
forth  from  the  schools  either  in  profound  igno- 
rance of  the  economic  basis  of  modern  society, 
or  with  only  the  most  superficial  and  mislead- 
ing knowledge  of  it.  The  indefensibleness  of 
this  policy,  even  from  the  most  practical  point 
of  view,  is  apparent  when  we  bear  in  mind  that 
in  this  country  we  are  in  the  habit  of  submit- 
ting questions,  primarily  economic  in  character, 
every  two  or  four  years  to  the  judgment  and 
votes  of  what  is  substantially  an  untutored 
mob.  If  practical  politics  only  dealt  with 
chemistry  as  well  as  with  economics,  we  could, 
by  the  same  short  and  easy  method,  come  to 
some  definite  and  authoritative  conclusion  con- 
cerning the  atomic  theory  and  learn  the  real 
facts    regarding    helium.     But    since   the    eco- 


94 


IS  THERE  A  NEW  EDUCATION? 


Attitude  of 
teachers 
toward  the 
scientific 
study  of 
education 


nomic  facts,  and  not  the  chemical  or  linguistic 
facts,  are  the  ones  to  be  bound  up  most  closely 
with  our  public  and  private  life,  they  should, 
on  that  very  account,  be  strongly  represented 
in  every  curriculum.  We  can  leave  questions 
as  to  the  undulatory  theory  of  light  and  as  to 
Grimm's  and  Verner's  laws  to  the  specialists; 
but  we  may  not  do  the  same  thing  with  ques- 
tions as  to  production  and  exchange,  as  to 
monetary  policy  and  taxation.  The  course 
of  study  is  not  liberal,  in  this  century,  that 
does  not  recognize  these  facts  and  emphasize 
economics  as  it  deserves.  I  cite  but  this  one 
instance  of  conflict  between  the  inherited  and 
the  scientifically  constructed  course  of  study. 
The  argument  and  its  illustration  might  be 
much  extended. 

I  have  now  indicated  how  I  should  answer 
my  own  question,  and  have  briefly  pointed  out 
typical  grounds  on  which  that  answer  rests. 
There  remains  the  ungracious  duty  of  adding 
a  word  regarding  the  attitude  of  college  facul- 
ties and  schoolmasters  toward  the  scientific 
study  of  education.  The  recklessness  with 
which  the  man  of  letters,  sometimes  the  col- 
lege president,  and  now  and  then  even  the 
more  canny  college  professor,  will  rush  into 
the  public  discussion  of  matters  of  education 


IS  THERE  A  NEW  EDUCATION?         95 

concerning  which  he  has  no  knowledge  what- 
ever, and  to  which  he  has  never  given  a  half- 
hour's  connected  thought,  is  appalling.  Opin- 
ion serves  for  information,  and  prejudice  usurps 
the  place  of  principle.  The  popular  journals 
and  the  printed  proceedings  of  educational  as- 
sociations teem  with  perfectly  preposterous 
contributions  bearing  the  signatures  of  worthy 
and  distinguished  men,  who  would  not  dream 
of  writing  dogmatically  upon  a  physical,  a  bi- 
ological, or  a  linguistic  problem.  For  some 
recondite  reason  they  face  the  equally  difficult 
and  unfamiliar  problems  of  education  without 
a  tremor.  The  effect  is  bad  enough  on  the 
colleges  and  schools  themselves,  but  it  is  far 
worse  on  the  public  generally,  who  are  thus 
led  off  to  the  worship  of  false  gods.  Even  in 
the  largest  American  institutions,  where  most 
is  at  stake,  the  men  who  give  any  conscien- 
tious and  prolonged  study  to  education  itself, 
as  distinct  from  the  department  of  knowledge 
in  which  their  direct  work  lies,  can  be  counted 
upon  the  fingers  of  one  hand.  As  a  conse- 
quence, many  college  faculties  are  no  better 
qualified  to  decree  courses  of  study  and  con- 
ditions of  admission  than  they  are  to  adopt  a 
system  of  ventilation  or  of  electric  lighting. 
In  time,  doubtless,  this  will  be  recognized,  and 


96         IS  THERE  A  NEW  EDUCATION? 

in  the  former  case,  as  in  the  latter,  the  facul- 
ties will  submit  to  be  guided  by  specialists  who 
do  know.  That  will  never  come  to  pass,  how- 
ever, until  school  and  college  teachers  see 
clearly  that  scholarship  is  one  thing  and  knowl- 
edge of  the  educational  process  quite  another; 
that  long  service  in  a  school  or  college  is  almost 
as  compatible  with  ignorance  of  education, 
scientifically  considered,  as  long  residence  in  a 
dwelling  is  compatible  with  ignorance  of  archi- 
tecture and  carpentry. 

Doctor  Johnson's  acumen  was  equal  to  draw- 
ing a  distinction  between  the  new  as  the  hith- 
erto non-existent,  the  new  as  the  comparatively 
recent,  and  the  new  as  the  hitherto  unfamiliar. 
In  each  and  all  of  these  senses  of  the  word,  I 
am  confident  that  there  is  a  new  education. 


FIVE  EVIDENCES  OF  AN  EDUCATION 


An  address  before  the  Phi  Beta  Kappa  Society  of  Vassar 
College,  June  10,  1901 


FIVE  EVIDENCES  OF  AN  EDUCATION 

"If  you  had  had  children,  sir,"  said  Bos- 
well,  "would  you  have  taught  them  anything  ?" 
"I  hope,"  replied  Doctor  Johnson,  "that  I 
should  have  willingly  lived  on  bread  and  water 
to  obtain  instruction  for  them;  but  I  would  not 
have  set  their  future  friendship  to  hazard,  for 
the  sake  of  thrusting  into  their  heads  knowl- 
edge of  things  for  which  they  might  not  per- 
haps have  either  taste  or  necessity.  You 
teach  your  daughters  the  diameters  of  the 
planets,  and  wonder  when  you  have  done  that 
they  do  not  delight  in  your  company."  From 
which  it  appears  that  Doctor  Johnson,  by  a 
sort  of  prolepsis,  was  moved  to  contribute  to 
the  discussion  of  one  of  the  vexed  questions  of 
our  time.  Who  is  the  educated  man  ?  By 
what  signs  shall  we  know  him  ? 

"In    the    first    golden    age    of   the    world,"   Who  is  the 
Erasmus  observes,  in  his  Praise  of  Folly,  "there  ^^c? 
was  no  need  of  these  perplexities.     There  was 
then  no  other  sort  of  learning  but  what  was 
naturally  collected  from  every  man's  common 
sense,  improved  by  an  easy  experience.     What 

99 


ioo  FIVE  EVIDENCES 

use  could  there  have  been  of  grammar,  when 
all  men  spoke  the  same  mother  tongue,  and 
aimed  at  no  higher  pitch  of  oratory  than  barely 
to  be  understood  by  each  other  ?  What  need 
of  logic,  when  they  were  too  wise  to  enter  into 
any  dispute  ?  Or  what  occasion  for  rhetoric, 
where  no  difference  arose  to  require  any  labori- 
ous decision  ?"  Surely,  in  contrasting  this  pic- 
ture of  a  far-off  golden  age  with  our  present- 
day  strenuous  age  of  steel,  we  must  be  moved 
to  say,  with  the  preacher:  "In  much  wisdom 
is  much  grief;  and  he  that  increaseth  knowledge 
increaseth  sorrow." 
The  It  is  only  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago 

Steal*1***1™  tnat  Comenius  urged,  with  ardent  zeal,  the 
establishment  in  London  of  a  college  of  learned 
men  who  should  bring  together  in  one  book 
the  sum  total  of  human  wisdom,  so  expressed 
as  to  meet  the  needs  of  both  the  present  and 
all  future  generations.  This  scheme  for  a  Pan- 
sophia,  or  repository  of  all  learning,  proved 
very  attractive  in  the  seventeenth  century, 
for  it  easily  adjusted  itself  to  the  notions  of  a 
period  which  looked  upon  learning  as  a  sub- 
stantial and  measurable  quantity,  to  be  ac- 
quired and  possessed.  Unfortunately,  this 
quantitative  ideal  of  education,  with  its  re- 
sultant processes  and  standards,  is  still  widely 


OF  AN  EDUCATION  101 

influential,  and  it  tempts  us  to  seek  the  evi- 
dences of  an  education  in  the  number  of  lan- 
guages learned,  in  the  variety  of  sciences 
studied,  and  generally  in  the  quantity  of  facts 
held  in  the  memory  reserve.  But,  on  the  other 
hand,  any  serious  attempt  to  apply  quantita- 
tive standards  to  the  determination  of  educa- 
tion quickly  betrays  their  inadequacy  and  their 
false  assumptions.  If  to  be  educated  means 
to  know  nature  in  systematic  fashion  and  to 
be  able  to  interpret  it,  then  nearly  every  man 
of  letters,  ancient  or  modern,  must  be  classed 
with  the  uneducated.  Or  if  to  be  educated 
means  to  have  sympathetic,  almost  affection- 
ate, insight  into  the  great  masterpieces  of  art 
and  of  literature,  then  innumerable  great  men 
of  action,  who  have  fully  represented  the  ideals 
and  the  power  of  their  time  and  who  mani- 
fested most  admirable  qualities  of  mind  and 
of  character,  were  uneducated.  The  case  is 
even  worse  to-day.  A  host  of  knowledges 
compass  us  about  on  every  side  and  bewilder 
by  their  variety  and  their  interest.  We  must 
exclude  the  many  to  choose  the  one.  The 
penalty  of  choice  is  deprivation;  the  price  of 
not  choosing  is  shallowness  and  incapacity. 
The  quantitative  method  of  estimating  educa- 
tion breaks  down,  then,  of  its  own  weight.     A 


102 


FIVE  EVIDENCES 


The  fivefold 

spiritual 

inheritance 


true  standard  is  to  be  sought  in  some  other 
direction. 

A  full  analysis  of  the  facts  of  life  as  they 
confront  us  to-day  would  show,  I  feel  confident, 
that  all  knowledges  and  all  influences  are  not 
on  a  single  plane  of  indifference  toward  the 
human  mind  that  would  be  educated.  All 
parts  of  the  spiritual  machine  are  not  mutu- 
ally interchangeable.  There  are  needs  to  be 
met  and  longings  to  be  satisfied  that  will  not 
accept  any  vicarious  response  to  their  demands. 
The  scientific,  the  literary,  the  aesthetic,  the 
institutional,  and  the  religious  aspects  of  life 
and  of  civilization,  while  interdependent,  are 
yet  independent  of  each  other,  in  the  sense 
that  no  one  of  them  can  be  reduced  to  a  func- 
tion of  another,  or  can  be  stated  in  terms  of 
another.1  Therefore,  each  of  these  five  aspects 
must,  I  think,  be  represented  in  some  degree 
in  every  scheme  of  training  which  has  education 
for  its  end.  Nevertheless,  this  training  when 
it  arrives  at  education  will  not  suffer  itself  to 
be  measured  and  estimated  quantitatively  in 
terms  either  of  science,  of  letters,  of  art,  of 
institutions,  or  of  religion.  It  will  have  pro- 
duced certain  traits  of  intellect  and  of  char- 
acter which  find  expression  in  ways  open  to 

1  See  pp.  26-38. 


OF  AN  EDUCATION  103 

the  observation  of  all  men,  and  it  is  toward 
these  traits  or  habits,  not  toward  external  and 
substantial  acquisition  or  accomplishment,  that 
one  must  turn  to  find  the  true  and  sure  evi- 
dences of  an  education,  as  education  is  con- 
ceived to-day. 

First  among  the  evidences  of  an  education  Correctness 
I  name  correctness  and  precision  in  the  use  of  .    J**  „..  ^ 

fly  in  the  use  of 

the  mother  tongue.  .  Important  as  this  power  the  mother 
is,  and  is  admitted  to  be.  it  is  a  comparatively  °ngue 
new  thing  in  education.  /The  modern  Euro- 
pean languages  took  on  educational  significance 
only  when  the  decentralization  of  culture  be- 
gan at  the  close  of  the  Middle  Ages.  So  late 
as  1549  Jacques  du  Bellay  supported  the  study 
of  French  with  the  very  mild  assertion  that  it 
is  "not  so  poor  a  tongue  as  many  think  it." 
Mulcaster,  writing  a  little  later,  found  it  neces- 
sary to  tell  why  his  book  on  education  was 
put  in  English  rather  than  in  Latin,  and  to 
defend  the  vernacular  when  he  referred  to  its 
educational  usefulness.  Melanchthon  put  Ger- 
man in  a  class  with  Greek  and  Hebrew,  and 
contrasted  all  three  unfavorably  with  Latin. 
Indeed  it  was  not  until  the  present  German 
Emperor  plainly  told  the  Berlin  School  Con- 
ference of  1890  that  a  national  basis  was  lack- 
ing in  German  education;    that  the  foundation 


104  FIVE  EVIDENCES 

of  the  gymnasium  course  of  study  must  be 
German;  that  the  duty  of  the  schoolmasters 
was  to  train  the  young  to  become  Germans, 
not  Greeks  and  Romans;  and  that  the  German 
language  must  be  made  the  centre  around 
which  all  other  subjects  revolved,  that  a  re- 
vision of  the  official  school  programme  was 
brought  about  that  made  place  for  the  really 
serious  study  of  the  German  language  and  lit- 
erature. And  to-day,  where  the  influence  of 
the  English  universities  and  of  not  a  few  Amer- 
ican colleges  is  potent,  the  study  of  English  is 
slight  and  insignificant  indeed.  The  supersti- 
tion that  the  best  gate  to  English  is  through 
the  Latin  is  anything  but  dead.  ) 
@X  But  for  the  great  mass  of  the  people  the 
vernacular  is  not  only  the  established  medium 
of  instruction,  but  fortunately  also  an  im- 
portant subject  of  study.  A  chief  measure  of 
educational  accomplishment  is  the  ease,  the 
correctness,  and  the  precision  with  which  one 
uses  this  instrument.! 

It  is  no  disrespect  to  the  splendid  literatures 
which  are  embodied  in  the  French  and  the 
German  tongues,  and  no  lack  of  appreciation 
of  the  services  of  those  great  peoples  to  civili- 
zation and  to  culture,  to  point  out  that  of 
modern   languages   the   English    is   easily   the 


OF  AN  EDUCATION  105 

first  and  the  most  powerful,  for  "it  is  the 
greatest  instrument  of  communication  that  is 
now  in  use  among  men  upon  the  earth."  It 
is  the  speech  of  an  active  people  among 
whom  individual  liberty  and  personal  initia- 
tive are  highly  prized.  It  falls  short,  no 
doubt,  of  the  philosophical  pliability  of  the 
Greek  and  of  the  scientific  ductility  of  the 
German;  but  what  is  there  in  the  whole  field 
of  human  passion  and  human  action  that  it 
cannot  express  with  freedom  and  with  a  power 
all  its  own  ?  Turn  Othello  into  German,  or 
compare  the  verse  of  Shelley  or  of  Keats  with 
the  graceful  lines  of  some  of  their  French  con- 
temporaries, and  learn  the  peculiar  power  of 
the  English  speech.  In  simple  word  or  sono- 
rous phrase  it  is  unequalled  as  a  medium  to 
reveal  the  thoughts,  the  feelings,  and  the 
ideals  of  humanity. 

One's  hold  upon  the  English  tongue  is  meas- 
ured by  his  choice  of  words  and  by  his  use  of 
idiom.  The  composite  character  of  modern 
English  offers  a  wide  field  for  apt  and  happy 
choice  of  expression.  The  educated  man,  at 
home  with  his  mother  tongue,  moves  easily 
about  in  its  Saxon,  Romanic,  and  Latin  ele- 
ments, and  has  gained  by  long  experience  and 
wide  reading  a  knowledge  of  the  mental  in- 


106  FIVE  EVIDENCES 

cidence  of  words  as  well  as  of  their  artistic 
effect.  He  is  hampered  by  no  set  formulas, 
but  manifests  in  his  speech,  spoken  and  written, 
the  characteristic  powers  and  appreciation  of 
his  nature.  The  educated  man  is  of  necessity, 
therefore,  a  constant  reader  of  the  best  written 
English.  He  reads  not  for  conscious  imita- 
tion, but  for  unconscious  absorption  and  re- 
flections/"He  knows  the  wide  distinction  be- 
tween correct  English  on  the  one  hand,  and 
pedantic,  or,  as  it  is  sometimes  called,  "ele- 
gant," English  on  the  other.  He  is  more 
likely  to  "go  to  bed"  than  to  "retire,"  to 
"get  up"  than  to  "arise,"  to  have  "legs" 
rather  than  "limbs,"  to  "dress"  than  to 
"clothe  himself,"  and  to  "make  a  speech" 
rather  than  to  "deliver  an  oration.""]  He 
knows  that  "if  you  hear  poor  English  and  read 
poor  English,  you  will  pretty  surely  speak  poor 
English  and  write  poor  English,"  1  and  governs 
himself  accordingly.  He  realizes  the  power 
and  place  of  idiom  and  its  relation  to  grammar, 
and  shows  his  skill  by  preserving  a  balance 
between  the  two  in  his  style.  He  would  fol- 
low with  intelligent  sympathy  the  scholarly 
discussions  of  idiom  and  of  grammar  by  Pro- 
fessor Earle2  and  would  find  therein  the  justi- 

1  White,  Everyday  English  (Boston,  1880),  p.  503. 

2  In  his  English  Prose  (London,  1890),  c.  2,  7. 


OF  AN  EDUCATION  107 

fication  of  much  of  his  best  practise.  In  short, 
in  his  use  of  his  mother  tongue  he  would  give 
sure  evidence  of  an  education. 

As    a    second    evidence    of   an    education    I  Refined  and 
name  those  refined  and  gentle  manners  which  gentle 

°  manners 

are  the  expression  of  fixed  habits  of  thought 
and  of  action.  "Manners  are  behavior  and 
good  breeding,"  as  Addison  said,  but  they  are 
more.  It  is  not  without  significance  that  the 
Latin  language  has  but  a  single  word  (mores) 
both  for  usages,  habits,  manners,  and  for  ^) 
moralsp((  Real  manners,  the  manners  of  a  ^-? 
truly  educated  man  or  woman,  are  an  outward 
expression  of  intellectual  and  moral  conviction. 
Sham  manners  are  a  veneer  which  falls  away 
at  the  dampening  touch  of  the  first  selfish  sug- 
gestion. Manners  have  a  moral  significance, 
and  find  their  basis  in  that  true  and  deepest 
self-respect  which  is  built  upon  respect  for 
others.)^(An  infallible  test  of  character  is  to 
be  foundin  one's  manners  toward  those  whom, 
for  one  reason  or  another,  the  world  may  deem 
his  inferiors.  A  man's  manners  toward  his 
equals  or  his  superiors  are  shaped  b}'  too 
many  motives  to  render  their  interpretation 
either  easy  or  certain.  Manners  do  not  make 
the  man,  but  manners  reveal  the  man.  It  is 
by  the  amount  of  respect,  deference,  and  cour- 


io8 


FIVE  EVIDENCES 


The  habit  of 
reflection 


</ 


UsT^ 


tesy  shown  to  human  personality  as  such  that 
we  judge  whether  one  is  on  dress  parade  or 
whether  he  is  so  well-trained,  well-educated, 
and  so  habitually  ethical  in  thought  and  action 
that  he  realizes  his  proper  relation  to  his  fel- 
lows, and  reveals  his  realization  in  his  manners^ 
As  Kant  insisted  more  than  a  century  ago,  a 
man  exists  as  an  end  in  himself,  and  not  merely 
as  a  means  to  be  arbitrarily  used  by  this  or 
that  will;  and  in  all  his  actions,  whether  they 
concern  himself  alone  or  other  rational  beings, 
he  must  always  be  regarded  as  an  end.  True 
manners  are  based  upon  a  recognition  of  this 
fact,  and  that  is  a  poor  education  indeed  which 
fails  to  inculcate  the  ethical  principle  and  the 
manners  that  embody  it. 

As  a  third  evidence  of  an  education  I  name 
the  power  and  habit  of  reflection.  It  is  a  fre- 
quent charge  against  us  moderns,  particularly 
against  Americans,  that  we  are  losing  the  habit 
of  reflection,  and  the  high  qualities  which  de- 
pend upon  it.  We  are  told  that  this  loss  is  a 
necessary  result  of  our  hurried  and  busy  lives, 
of  our  diverse  interests,  and  of  the  annihilation 
of  space  and  time  by  steam  and  electricity. 
The  whole  world  and  its  happenings  are  brought 
to  our  very  doors  by  the  daily  newspaper. 
Our   attention   leaps   from   Manila   to   Pekin, 


' 


q%v+^  cxxiX^  y-\x" 


sOV^V^^fj'  OF  AN  EDUCATION 


109 


from  Pekin  to  the  Transvaal,  and  from  the 
Transvaal  to  Havana.  We  are  torn  by  con- 
flicting or  unconnected  emotions,  and  our  minds 
are  occupied  by  ideas  following  each  other  with 
such  rapidity  that  we  fail  to  get  a  firm  and 
deep  hold  of  any  one  of  the  great  facts  that 
come  into  our  lives.  This  is  the  charge  which 
even  sympathetic  critics  bring  against  us. 

If  it  be  true — and  there  are  some  counts  in 
the  indictment  which  it  is  difficult  to  deny — 
then  one  of  the  most  precious  evidences  of  an 
education  is  slipping  from  us,  and  we  must 
redouble  our  efforts  to  keep  fast  hold  upon  it. 
For  an  unexamined  life,  as  Socrates  unceas- 
ingly insisted,  is  not  worth  living.  The  life 
which  asks  no  questions  of  itself,  which  traces 
events  back  to  no  causes  and  forward  to  no 
purposes,  which  raises  no  vital  issues  of  prin- 
ciple, and  which  seeks  no  interpretation  of 
what  passes  within  and  without,  is  not  a  human 
life  at  all;  it  is  the  life  of  an  animal.  The 
trained  and  the  untrained  mind  are  perhaps 
in  sharpest  contrast  at  this  very  point.  An 
armory  of  insights  and  convictions  always 
ready  for  applications  to  new  conditions,  and 
invincible  save  by  deeper  insights  and  more 
rational  convictions,  is  a  mark  of  a  trained 
and   educated  mind.     The  educated  man  has 


oL.  ^v*y£\ 


v  K  *  ^  . 


no  FIVE  EVIDENCES 

standards  of  truth,  of  human  experience,  and 
of  wisdom  by  which  new  proposals  are  judged. 
These  standards  can  be  gained  only  through 
reflection.  The  undisciplined  mind  is  a  prey 
to  every  passing  fancy  and  the  victim  of  every 
plausible  doctrinaire.  He  has  no  permanent 
forms  of  judgment  which  give  him  character. 

Renan  was  right  when  he  held  that  the  first 
condition  for  the  development  of  the  mind  is 
that  it  shall  have  liberty;  and  liberty  for  the 
mind  means  freedom  from  the  control  of  the 
unreasonable,  and  freedom  to  choose  the  rea- 
sonable in  accordance  with  principle.  A  body 
of  principles  is  a  necessary  possession  of  the 
educated  man.  His  development  is  always 
with  reference  to  his  principles,  and  proceeds 
by  evolution,  not  revolution. 
&  (Philosophy  is,  of  course,  the  great  single 
study  by  which  the  power  of  reflection  is  de- 
veloped until  it  becomes  a  habit,  but  there  is 
a  philosophic  study  of  literature,  of  politics,  of 
natural  science,  which  makes  for  the  same  end. 
The  question  how,  whose  answer  is  science, 
and  the  question  wh)^,  whose  answer  is  phi- 
losophy, are  the  beginnings  of  reflection.  A 
truly  educated  man  asks  both  questions  con- 
tinually, and  as  a  result  is  habituated  to  re- 
flection. 


OF  AN  EDUCATION  in 

As  a  fourth  evidence  of  an  education  I  name  The  power 
the  power  of  growth.^  There  is  a  type  of  mind  t0  grow 
which,  when  trained  to  a  certain  point,  crystal- 
lizes,  as  it  were,  and  refuses  to  move  forward 
thereafter.  This  type  of  mind  fails  to  give  one 
of  the  essential  evidences  of  an  education.  It 
has  perhaps  acquired  much  and  promised  much; 
but  somehow  or  other  the  promise  is  not  ful- 
filled. It  is  not  dead,  but  in  a  trance.  Only 
such  functions  are  performed  as  serve  to  keep 
it  where  it  is;  there  is  no  movement,  no  devel- 
opment, no  new  power  or  accomplishment. 
The  impulse  to  continuous  study,  and  to  that 
self-education  which  are  the  conditions  of 
permanent  intellectual  growth,  is  wanting. 
Education  has  so  far  failed  of  one  of  its  chief 
purposes. 

A  human  mind  continuing  to  grow  and  to 
develop  throughout  a  long  life  is  a  splendid 
and  impressive  sight;  It  was  that  character- 
istic in  Mr.  Gladstone  which  made  his  per- 
sonality so  attractive  to  young  and  ambitious 
men.  They  were  fired  by  his  zeal  and  inspired 
by  his  limitless  intellectual  energy.  To  have 
passed  from  being  "the  rising  hope  of  the  stern 
and  unbending  Tories"  in  1838  to  the  unchal- 
lenged leadership  of  the  anti-Tory  party  in 
Great  Britain  a  generation  later,  and  to  have 


ii2  FIVE  EVIDENCES 

continued  to  grow  throughout  an  exception- 
ally long  life  is  no  mean  distinction;  and  it  is 
an  example  of  what,  in  less  conspicuous  ways, 
is  the  lot  of  every  mind  whose  training  is  ef- 
fective. Broadened  views,  widened  sympathies, 
deepened  insights  are  the  accompaniments  of 
growth. 

vFor  this  growth  a  many-sided  interest  is 
necessary,  and  this  is  why  growth  and  intel- 
lectual and  moral  narrowness  are  eternally  at 
war.  There  is  much  in  our  modern  education 
which  is  uneducational  because  it  makes  growth 
difficult,  if  not  impossible.  Early  specializa- 
tion, with  its  attendant  limited  range  both  of 
information  and  of  interest,  is  an  enemy  of 
growth.  Turning  from  the  distasteful  before 
it  is  understood  is  an  enemy  of  growth.  Fail- 
ure to  see  the  relation  of  the  subject  of  one's 
special  interest  to  other  subjects  is  an  enemy  of 
growth.  The  pretense  of  investigation  and 
discovery  before  mastering  existent  knowledge 
is  an  enemy  of  growth.  The  habit  of  cynical 
indifference  toward  men  and  things  and  of 
aloofness  from  them,  sometimes  supposed  to 
be  peculiarly  academic,  is  an  enemy  of  growth. 
These,  then,  are  all  to  be  shunned  while  formal 
education  is  going  on,  if  it  is  to  carry  with  it 
the  priceless  gift  of  an  impulse  to  continuous 


OF  AN  EDUCATION  113 

growtty.  "Life,"  says  Bishop  Spalding  in  an 
eloquent  passage,1  "is  the  unfolding  of  a  mys- 
terious power,  which  in  man  rises  to  self- 
consciousness,  and  through  self-consciousness 
to  the  knowledge  of  a  world  of  truth  and  order 
and  love,  where  action  may  no  longer  be  left 
wholly  to  the  sway  of  matter  or  to  the  impulse 
of  instinct,  but  may  and  should  be  controlled 
by  reason  and  conscience.  To  further  this 
process  by  deliberate  and  intelligent  effort  is  to 
educate" — and,  I  add,  to  educate  so  as  to  sow 
the  seed  of  continuous  growth,  intellectual  and 
moral. 

And  as  a  fifth  evidence  of  an  education  I  The  power 
name  efficiency — the  power  to  do.  The  time  °  ° 
has  long  since  gone  by,  if  it  ever  was,  when 
contemplation  pure  and  simple,  withdrawal 
from  the  world  and  its  activities,  or  intelligent 
incompetence  was  a  defensible  ideal  of  educa- 
tion. To-day  the  truly  educated  man  must 
be,  in  some  sense,  efficient.  With  brain, 
tongue,  or  hand  he  must  be  able  to  express  his 
knowledge,  and  so  leave  the  world  other  than 
he  found  it.  Mr.  James  is  simply  summing 
up  what  physiology  and  psychology  both  teach 
when  he  exclaims  ^j"  No  reception  without  re- 
action,  no  impression  without   correlative  ex- 

1  Means  and  Ends  of  Education  (Chicago,  1895),  p.  72. 

C^f  -kS)  X:  W*6* 


H4  FIVE  EVIDENCES 

pression— this  is  the  great  maxim  which  the 
teacher  ought  never  to  forget.  An  impression 
which  simply  flows  in  at  the  pupil's  eyes  or 
ears,  and  in  no  way  modifies  his  active  life, 
is  an  impression  gone  to  waste.  It  is  physi- 
ologically incomplete.  It  leaves  no  fruits  be- 
hind it  in  the  way  of  capacity  acquired.  Even 
as  mere  impression,  it  fails  to  produce  its 
proper  effect  upon  the  memory;  for,  to  re- 
main fully  among  the  acquisitions  of  the  latter 
faculty,  it  must  be  wrought  into  the  whole 
cycle  of  our  operations.  Its  motor  conse- 
quences are  what  clinch  it."  l  This  is  just  as 
true  of  knowledge  in  general  as  of  impressions. 
Indefinite  absorption  without  production  is 
fatal  both  to  character  and  to  the  highest 
intellectual  power.  Do  something  and  be  able 
to  do  it  well;  express  what  you  know  in  some 
helpful  and  substantial  form;  produce,  and 
do  not  everlastingly  feel  only  and  revel  in  feel- 
ings— these  are  counsels  which  make  for  a  real 
education  and  against  that  sham  form  of  it 
which  is  easily  recognized  as  well-informed  in- 
capacity. Our  colleges  and  universities  abound 
in  false  notions,  notions  as  unscientific  as  they 
are  unphilosophical,  of  the  supposed  value  of 
knowledge,  information,  for  its  own  sake.     It 

1  Talks  to  Teachers  on  Psychology  (New  York,  1899),  p.  33. 


OF  AN  EDUCATION  115 

has  none.  The  date  of  the  discovery  of  America 
is  in  itself  as  meaningless  as  the  date  of  the 
birth  of  the  youngest  blade  of  grass  in  the 
neighboring  field;  it  means  something  because 
it  is  part  of  a  larger  knowledge-whole,  because 
it  has  relations,  applications,  uses;  and  for 
the  student  who  sees  none  of  these  and  knows 
none  of  them,  America  was  discovered  in  1249 
quite  as  much  as  it  was  in  1492. 

High  efficiency  is  primarily  an  intellectual 
affair,  and  only  longo  intervallo  does  it  take  on 
anything  approaching  a  mechanical  form.  Its 
mechanical  form  is  always  wholly  subordinate 
to  its  springs  in  the  intellect.  It  is  the  out- 
growth of  an  established  and  habitual  relation- 
ship between  intellect  and  will,  by  means  of 
which  knowledge  is  constantly  made  power. 
For  knowledge  is  not  power,  Bacon  to  the 
contrary  notwithstanding,  unless  it  is  made 
so,  and  it  can  be  made  so  only  by  him  who 
possesses  the  knowledge.  The  habit  of  making 
knowledge  power  is  efficiency.  Without  it 
education  is  incomplete. 

These   five   characteristics,   then,   I   offer   as  Five 
evidences  of  an  education-^-correctness  and  pre- 
cision in  the  use  of  the  mother  tongue;  defined  educated 
and  gentle  manners,  which  are  the  expression 


7 


characteristics 
of  the 


n6  FIVE  EVIDENCES 

of  fixed  habits  of  thought  and  action;^the  power 
and  habit  of  reflection j^he  power  of  growth; 
and  efficiency,  or  the  power  to  do.  On  this 
plane  the  physicist  may  meet  with  the  philo- 
logian,  and  the  naturalist  with  the  philosopher, 
and  each  recognize  the  fact  that  his  fellow  is 
an  educated  man,  though  the  range  of  their 
information  is  widely  different,  and  the  centres 
of  their  highest  interests  are  far  apart.  They 
are  knit  together  in  a  brotherhood  by  the  close 
tie  of  those  traits  which  have  sprung  out  of 
the  reaction  of  their  minds  and  wills  upon  that 
which  has  fed  them  and  brought  them  strength. 
Without  these  traits  men  are  not  truly  educated 
and  their  erudition,  however  vast,  is  of  no 
avail;  it  furnishes  a  museum,  not  a  developed 
human  being. 

It  is  these  habits,  of  necessity  made  by  our- 
selves alone,  begun  in  the  days  of  school  and 
college,  and  strengthened  with  maturer  years 
and  broader  experience,  that  serve  to  show  to 
ourselves  and  to  others  that  we  have  discovered 
the  secret  of  gaining  an  education. 


VI 


TRAINING   FOR  VOCATION  AND   FOR 
AVOCATION 


Based  upon  an  article  written  for  the  New  York  Times, 
September  19,  1908 


TRAINING   FOR  VOCATION  AND   FOR 
AVOCATION 

The  swing  of  the  educational  pendulum  has 
now  brought  training  for  vocations — that  is, 
for  industries,  callings,  or  professions — to  the 
forefront  of  present-day  interest  and  discus- 
sion. The  familiar  opposition  between  voca- 
tion and  culture  is  heavily  emphasized  and 
falsely  interpreted.  Paradoxes  without  num- 
ber are  paraded  as  axioms.  Liberal  learning, 
itself  a  sure  claim  to  immortality  for  any  na- 
tion that  cultivates  it,  is  made  light  of;  and 
in  the  heat  of  debate  the  higher  usefulness  is 
held  to  be  subordinate  to  the  lower. 

The  precise  relation  between  training  for 
vocation  and  liberal  learning  merits  examina- 
tion, however  brief. 

It  needs  no  profound  philosophy  to  tell  us  Labor  and 
that  if  any  one  is  to  live,  some  one  must  work.    esure 
Human  life  is  an  economic,  as  well  as  a  physi- 
ologic,   fact.     Moreover,    the    history    of    the 
human   race   makes   it    plain   that   progress   in 
civilization  is  measured  by  the  use  that  man 

makes  of  his  higher,  or  reflective  and  creative, 
119 


120  TRAINING  FOR  VOCATION 

powers.  It  is  what  he  does  in  literature,  in 
art,  in  government,  in  science  and  its  applica- 
tions that  carries  man  forward  in  his  own 
esteem.  One  concludes,  therefore,  that  the 
purpose  of  a  vocation  is  to  gain  time  for  avo- 
cation; that  the  aim  of  labor  is  leisure.  The 
things  that  our  labor  produces  would  not  in- 
terest us  indefinitely,  or  perhaps  greatly,  if 
they  were  not  exchangeable  for  leisure  or  if 
they  did  not  contribute  to  the  enjoyment  of 
leisure. 

In  a  hard-and-fast  social  and  political  system, 
men  are  more  or  less  permanently  divided  into 
groups  or  castes,  living  and  moving  in  differ- 
ent and  separate  planes.  One  grandfather, 
father,  and  son  work  at  the  same  occupation, 
perhaps  in  one  and  the  same  place;  another 
grandfather,  father,  and  son  enjoy  ample  lei- 
sure, perhaps  under  substantially  unchanged 
conditions.  This  state  of  affairs  is  unfamiliar 
to  our  American  democracy,  and  it  is  foreign 
to  our  habits  of  thinking.  We  do  not  ask  a 
man  to  stay  where  he  is,  but  rather  to  try  to 
rise  as  high  as  he  can  go.  We  do  not  ask  him 
to  provide  an  economic  basis  for  some  one 
else's  leisure,  for  the  exercise  of  some  one  else's 
powers  of  reflection  and  of  creation;  but  for 
his  own.     Therefore,  in  providing  a  system  of 


AND  FOR  AVOCATION  121 

formal  training  adequate  to  our  nation's  needs 
and  hopes,  we  must  not  assume  that  any  given 
youth  is  forever  to  be  shut  out  from  leisure 
and  its  enjoyments;  we  must  on  the  contrary 
show  him  how  leisure  is  gained  and  how 
worthily  enjoyed,  and  set  him  on  the  way  to 
gain  and  to  enjoy  it. 

One  other  elementary  principle  is  of  impor-  Hand  and 
tance..^(The  manual  industries,  as  well  as  the 
fine  and  the  useful  arts  imply,  for  their  suc- 
cessful prosecution,  co-ordination  and  co-opera- 
tion of  eye  and  hand,  and  a  certain  amount  ^ 
of  trained  dexterity.  The  training  of  the  motor  o*^ 
powers  which  are  involved  in  developing  these 
processes  is  itself  an  essential  part  of  a  sound 
general  training,  as  it  is  training  in  one  or 
more  of  the  forms  of  expression.  For,  of 
course,  thought  may  be  expressed  by  drawing, 
by  painting,  or  by  making,  as  well  as  by  lan- 
guage. In  other  words,  hand  or  manual  train- 
ing has  an  intellectual  reaction,  if  properly 
planned  and  interpreted.  These  facts  mean 
that  certain  acts  or  stages  of  motor  training 
are  useful  both  as  training  for  vocation  and  as 
training  for  avocation. 

The  fundamental  truths  that  have  been  very 
briefly  stated  are  easily  applied  to  our  Ameri- 
can educational  problem. 


A^Uxl- 


\3 


Vocational 

training 

follows 

elementary 

instruction 


2 


122 


TRAINING  FOR  VOCATION 


" 


The  American  youth  should  be  taught, 
whenever  and  so  far  as  possible,  to  enter  into 
and  take  hold  of  American  life  at  a  given  point. 
Training  for  vocation  will  provide  the  "given 
point,"  but  it  must  not  be  postponed  to  an 
age  when  only  a  handful  of  children  will  be 
able  to  profit  by  it. 

Vocational  training  ought  not  to  be  included 
in  the  six  years  that  are  sufficient  for  the  ele- 
mentary-school course,  properly  so-called.  The 
child  is  then  too  young  to  enter  wisely  and 
economically  upon  vocational  training,  and, 
moreover,  every  hour  of  his  school  life  is  needed 
for  instruction  in  the  use  of  the  elemental  tools 
and  facts  of  civilization./  He  can,  however, 
and  should,  then  receive  that  preliminary 
training  of  his  motor  or  expressive  powers 
which,  as  has  already  been  pointed  out,  is 
useful  afterward  to  build  a  vocational  train- 
ing upon. 
q  ;  When  once  the  six-year  elementary- school 
course  is  completed,  however,  then  vocational 
training  should  be  given  its  place.  While 
every  possible  avenue  of  advance  should  be 
kept  open  for  the  boy  or  girl  who  looks  forward 
to  completing  a  general  secondary-school  course, 
or  to  entering  a  college,  vocational  training 
should  be  provided  for  the  vastly  larger  num- 


AND  FOR  AVOCATION  123 

ber  who  have  no  such  purpose.  They  should 
be  able  to  get  the  whole  of  a  training  intended 
for  themselves,  and  not  merely  part  of  a  train- 
ing intended  for  some  one  else. 

{This  vocational  training  will,   if  wisely  or-  Special 
ganized,   take   on   two   distinct   forms.     There  vo^atlon 

o  »  schools 

will  be  special  secondary  schools  of  two,  three, 
or  four  year  courses  for  those  boys  and  girls 
who  are  able  to  give  their  full  time  to  school 
work  and  who  choose  one  of  these  vocational 
secondary  schools  in  preference  to  the  general 
secondary-school  course.  There  will  also  be 
continuation  schools,  with  evening  instruction, 
for  those  children  who  are  compelled  to  be- 
come wage-earners  as  soon  as  the  compulsory- 
education  and  child-labor  laws  will  permit 
them  to  do  so. 

It  is  important  that  these  schools  be  genu- 
ine vocational  schools  and  not  merely  schools 
with  a  smattering  of  vocational  instruction. 
Training  for  vocation  is  a  necessary  part  of 
education,  and  it  must  be  done  thoroughly. 
The  more  completely  the  vocational  schools 
are  adapted  to  workshops,  and  the  more  com- 
pletely their  organization  and  discipline  con- 
form to  workshop  conditions,  the  better.  It 
is  vital,  too,  that  principles  be  taught  with 
processes,   and   illustrated   by   them;    for   the 


124 


TRAINING  FOR  VOCATION 


Vocational 
training  and 
liberal 
learning 


7 


boy  or  girl  who  understands  the  principles 
underlying  a  given  process,  will  be  the  most 
likely  to  rise  to  a  position  of  superintendence 
or  control.  The  German  people  have  kept  this 
point  well  in  mind  in  developing  their  admira- 
ble vocational  schools,  and  they  are  already 
reaping  the  practical  advantages  of  it  both  as 
a  nation  and  as  individual  workers. 

Both  in  the  elementary  and  in  the  voca- 
tional schools,  the  teacher's  duty  is  to  sow  the 
seed  of  ambition  to  participate  in  and  to  en- 
joy the  intellectual  life,  and  to  keep  insisting 
that  there  is  a  higher  aim  than  industrial  skill 
or  success,  for  which  those  are  to  prepare  the 
way.  Through  response  to  this  stimulus,  the 
individual  pupil  must  do  for  himself  what  he 
can  by  reading,  by  conversation,  and  by  study 
and  love  of  the  great  public  collections  of  art, 
history,  and  science  which  the  museums  of 
the  large  cities  are  rapidly  bringing  together 
for  the  benefit  and  enjoyment  of  the  public./ 

It  is  a  grave  error,  therefore,  and  one  which 
gives  rise  to  many  misconceptions  and  many 
mistakes  of  judgment,  to  set  vocational  train- 
ing and  liberal  learning  in  sharp  antagonism 
to  each  other.  The  purpose  of  the  former  is 
to  pave  the  way  to  some  appreciation  of  the 
latter  and   to   provide   an  economic  basis  for 


AND  FOR  A  VOCA TION  125 

it  to  rest  upon.  The  equally  grave  error  of 
the  past  has  been  to  frame  a  school  course 
on  the  hypothesis  that  every  pupil  was  to  go 
forward  in  the  most  deliberate  and  amplest 
fashion  to  the  study  of  the  products  of  the 
intellectual  life,  regardless  of  the  basis  of  his 
own  economic  support. 

Something  might  be  said,  too,  about  the  de- 
sirability of  work  for  work's  sake,  because  of 
its  ethical  value,  and  about  the  unwisdom  of 
permitting  the  children  of  the  well-to-do  to 
escape  the  discipline  and  the  advantage  of 
labor,  intellectual  or  physical. 

The  younger  generation   shows  many  signs  True 
of  being  too  impatient  to  prepare  for  life.     The  vocatio°al 

r  r      r  ^  prepaxatwi 

old  notion  that  a  child  should  be  so  trained  as 
to  have  the  fullest  and  most  complete  posses- 
sion of  its  faculties  and  its  competences,  in 
order  to  rise  in  efficiency,  to  gain  larger  re- 
wards, and  to  render  more  complete  service, 
is  too  often  pushed  aside  by  the  new  notion 
that  it  is  quite  enough  if  a  child  is  trained  in 
some  aptitude  to  enable  it  to  stay  where  it 
first  finds  itself.  Of  course,  under  the  guise  of 
progress,  this  is  retrogression.  Carried  to  its 
logical  result,  it  would  mean  a  static  and  a 
stratified  social  order.  It  would  put  an  end 
to  individual  initiative  and  to  individual  op- 


126 


TRAINING  FOR  VOCATION 


The  Oxford 
training 


Discipline 

and 

self -discipline 


portunity.  It  is  not  difficult  to  foretell  what 
results  would  follow  both  to  civilization  and 
to  social  order  and  comfort.  The  basis  for 
any  true  vocational  preparation  is  training  to 
know  a  few  things  well  and  thoroughly,  and 
in  gaining  such  knowledge  to  form  those  habits 
of  mind  and  of  will  that  fit  the  individual  to 
meet  new  duties  and  unforeseen  emergencies. 
This  is  the  real  reason  why  the  traditional 
training  given  at  the  University  of  Oxford  has 
produced  such  stupendous  results  for  genera- 
tions. Of  course,  the  Oxford  training  has  had, 
to  some  extent  at  least,  selected  material  to 
work  upon;  but  it  has  done  its  work  amazingly 
well.  Whether  in  statesmanship  or  at  the  bar 
or  in  the  army  or  in  diplomacy  or  in  large 
administrative  undertakings  in  business,  the 
man  trained  at  Oxford  has  won  first  place  by 
reason  of  the  character  and  quality  of  his  per- 
formance. No  such  result  has  been  obtained, 
and  no  such  result  need  be  expected,  from  a 
school  and  college  training  which  is  a  quick 
smattering  of  many  things.  At  the  bottom 
of  the  educational  process  lies  discipline,  and 
the  purpose  of  discipline  is  to  develop  the  power 
of  self-discipline.  When  discipline  is  with- 
drawn, dawdling  quickly  enters,  and  the  habit 
of  dawdling  is  as  corrupting  to  the  intellect  as 


AND  FOR  AVOCATION  127 

it  is  to  the  morals.  The  patience  to  be  thor- 
ough, the  concentration  to  understand,  and 
the  persistence  to  grasp  and  to  apply,  are  three 
traits  that  very  clearly  mark  off  the  truly  edu- 
cated and  disciplined  man  from  his  uneducated 
and  undisciplined  fellow,  and  they  are  pre- 
cisely the  three  .traits  which  are  most  over- 
looked and  neglected  in  the  modern  school 
and  college  curriculum. \  A  school  is  supposed 
to  be  modern  and  progressive  if  it  offers  some- 
thing new,  regardless  of  the  fact  that  this  some- 
thing new  may  be  not  only  useless,  but  harm- 
ful, as  an  educational  instrument. 

(With  the  growth  of  democracy  the  need  for 
self-discipline  becomes  not  less,  but  far  greater. 
When  great  bodies  of  men  were  controlled  by 
power  from  without,  then  they  were  in  so  far 
disciplined;  now  that  in  all  parts  of  the  world 
men  are  shaping  their  own  collective  action 
without  let  or  hindrance,  the  need  for  self- 
discipline  is  many  times  greater  than  it  ever 
was  before.  In  an  older  civilization  self-dis- 
cipline was  necessary  for  the  protection  of 
individual  character;  to-day  it  is  necessary 
for  the  protection  of  society  and  all  its  huge 
interests. 

Too  much  slovenly  reading,  particularly  of 
newspapers    and    of    magazines,    but    also    of 


128     TRAINING  FOR  VOCATION 

worthless  books,  stands  in  the  way  of  educa- 
tion and  enlightenment.  In  no  field  of  human 
interest  is  the  substitution  of  quantity  for 
quality  more  fraught  with  damage  and  dis- 
order than  in  that  of  reading.  The  builders 
of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  and 
the  great  lawyers  of  the  colonial  and  early 
national  period  knew  but  few  books,  but  the 
books  that  they  knew  were  first-rate  books  and 
they  knew  them  well.  Nothing  contributed 
so  much  to  the  fulness  of  their  minds,  to  the 
keenness  of  their  intellects,  or  to  the  lasting 
character  of  the  institutions  that  they  built, 
as  their  reflective  grasp  on  a  few  great  books 
and  on  the  principles  and  literary  standards 
which  those  books  taught  and  exemplified. 
Such  a  task  as  that  which  Gibbon  set  himself 
over  a  century  ago  would  be  impossible  to-day, 
even  for  a  syndicate  of  Gibbons.  There  are 
too  many  books  now  to  enable  another  His- 
tory of  the  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire 
to  be  composed.  Productivity  of  the  highest 
type  is  checked  by  the  excess  of  facilities. 
This  is  true  both  of  books  and  of  physical 
apparatus.  We  could  get  along  well  with  far 
fewer  books  and  far  less  apparatus,  and  we 
should  be  likely  to  get  more  ideas  and  a  higher 
type  of  human  being. 


(y 


AND  FOR  AVOCATION  129 


What  has  been  said  relates  chiefly,  or  most 
directly,  to  the  advantage  of  the  individual 
who  receives  the  training.  The  interest  of  the 
community,  of  the  nation  as  a  whole,  in  voca- 
tional training  is  no  less  great  and  no  less  direct. 
Thus  far,  the  American  people  have  prospered 
greatly  because  of  the  enormous  natural  re- 
sources spread  out  before  them.  This  condi- 
tion is  now  coming  to  an  end.  Hereafter, 
waste  must  give  way  to  thrift,  and  rough  guess- 
work to  careful  planning.  This  means  that 
trained  industrial  skill  is  a  factor  in  the  nation's 
prosperity.  To  escape  from  what  Bismarck 
once  called  "the  educated  proletariat"  we 
must  have  a  care  that  those  who  gain  leisure, 
or  have  it  given  to  them,  unite  with  it  a  ca- 
pacity for  skilled  labor./  (^Avocations  need  vo-  *«_ 
cations  to  keep  them  from  harm./ 


VII 
STANDARDS 


An  address  before  the  Girls'  Club  of  St.  Bartholomew's 
Parish,  New  York,  February  i,  1909 


STANDARDS 

In  a  great  city  like  New  York,  where  popu-  importance 
lation  is  counted  by  the  million,  and  in  this  ^d^dual 
huge  country,  where  we  habitually  think  and 
speak  in  terms  of  nine  and  ten  figures,  it  is 
very  easy  to  lose  sight  of  the  fact  that  after 
all  the  most  important  thing  in  the  world  is 
the  intelligent,  well-balanced,  high-minded  in- 
dividual human  being.  When  one  reads  and 
talks  and  hears  lectures  and  discussions  now- 
adays on  ways  in  which  the  world  is  going 
to  be  improved,  he  finds  himself  usually  con- 
fronted with  a  formula,  or  a  law,  or  a  principle 
of  some  kind  which  is  expected  to  bring  about 
the  desired  improvement.  f  One  gets  the  im- 
pression somehow  or  other  from  all  this  that 
you  and  I  as  individuals  have  nothing  left  to 
do,  but  that  everything  is  going  to  be  done 
for  us  by  the  government — by  the  legislature, 
by  the  Congress,  by  the  courts — or  by  some 
new  way  of  controlling  business,  or  by  some 
new  mode  of  distributing  wealth,  and  all  the 
rest  of  the  dismal  and  familiar  jargon  of  the 
day.  But  the  more  you  think  about  it  and  the 
133 


i34  STANDARDS 

longer  you  look  at  your  own  individual  world 
and  life  and  what  goes  on  in  it  every  day — 
the  mere  struggle  for  existence  even — the  more 
carefully  you  reflect  on  what  influences  and 
directs  and  compels  you,  the  more  clearly  will 
you  see  that  there  is  no  escape  from  the  indi- 
vidual responsibility  which  rests  on  each  one 
of  us.  i  The  only  way  in  which  things  can  be 
made  more  nearly  as  they  should  be  in  this 
city,  in  this  nation,  in  this  world,  is  by  our 
individually  making  them  so.  It  cannot  be 
done  by  passing  laws,  however  good.  It  can- 
not be  done  by  the  action  of  the  board  of  alder- 
men. It  cannot  be  done  by  the  action  of  the 
legislature.  It  cannot  be  done  even  through 
new  societies  and  organizations,  or  by  new  so- 
cial projects,  or  political  schemes.  Through 
you  and  me  in  our  daily  lives  whatever  is  to 
be  done  must  be  done.  We  have  each  of  us 
to  lift  our  share  of  the  load,  and  that  share 
consists  always  primarily  of  our  own  selves. 

It  is  highly  important  that  we  should  give 
close  and  constant  attention  to  the  standards 
that  we  set  before  ourselves;  the  standards 
by  which  we  measure  and  test  what  we  do 
and  plan  to  do  every  day  of  our  lives.  ) 
The  setting  of  We  sometimes  forget  what  an  important 
thing  a  standard  is,  how  precious  it  is,  how 


standards 


STANDARDS  135 

carefully  it  is  to  be  determined  and  looked 
after.  Have  you  ever  stopped  to  reflect  that 
when  you  speak  of  a  standard  of  weight,  like 
a  pound,  or  a  standard  of  length,  like  a  yard, 
you  are  speaking  about  something  that  the 
governments  of  the  world  have  spent  great 
amounts  of  money  to  determine,  and  when 
determined  to  keep  just  and  accurate  ?  When 
you  buy  or  sell  a  pound  of  sugar,  or  when  you 
buy  or  sell  a  yard  of  cloth,  you  use  a  term  that 
is  so  familiar  that  you  probably  never  stop  to 
think  that  in  Philadelphia  at  the  United  States 
Mint,  in  Washington  at  the  Bureau  of  Stand- 
ards, in  London,  in  Paris,  in  Berlin,  and  in 
the  other  great  capitals  of  the  world,  these 
and  other  similar  standards  are  kept  under 
glass  where  no  one  can  touch  them.  They 
are  kept  at  an  even  temperature,  because  if 
it  grows  hot  they  are  altered  by  expansion, 
and  if  it  grows  cold  they  are  altered  by  con- 
traction. These  standards  are  preserved  under 
the  most  careful  supervision,  in  order  that 
somewhere  in  the  world  there  may  be  a  fixed 
measure  to  go  to  in  time  of  doubt  or  difference 
of  opinion  or  dispute.  )  In  a  shop  you  measure 
a  yard  of  cloth  in  a  hurry  and  you  do  it  pretty 
accurately;  you  do  not  miss  the  full  or  exact 
yard   by   very   much.     You    put    a   pound   of 


136 


STANDARDS 


Standards  of 

personal 

conduct 


sugar  on  the  scales  and  weigh  it;  you  do  not 
miss  the  precise  weight  by  very  much.  Your 
results  in  both  cases  are  reasonably  accurate 
and  will  do  for  all  practical  purposes.  But 
somewhere  in  the  world  there  must  be  a  stand- 
ard that  is  not  only  pretty  accurate,  but  ab- 
solutely accurate.  That  standard  is  the  yard, 
or  the  pound,  that  we  have  in  mind  when  we 
talk  about  the  standards  of  weight  and  meas- 
urement, and  not  the  approximations  to  these 
which  we  make  in  daily  life. 

If  governments  and  civilized  men  generally 
think  it  worth  while  to  take  such  pains  and  go 
to  such  trouble  and  expense  to  find  out  proper 
standards  of  weight  and  measurement,  and  to 
keep  them  where  dust  and  heat  and  cold  can- 
not affect  them,  in  order  that  they  may  be 
really  standard,  what  are  we  to  think  about 
our  standards — those  that  we  set  up  to  test 
ourselves  by,  in  order  that  we  may  know 
whether  we  are  doing  the  whole  of  that  which 
we  ought  to  do  ? 

The  full  effect  of  this  question  can  be  made 
clear  by  a  few  illustrations  taken  from  daily 
life.  One  cannot  help  noticing  what  wretch- 
edly poor  and  incorrect  and  vulgar  English  is 
spoken  by  children  coming  from  school,  chil- 
dren that  in  the  classroom  will  speak  with  al- 


STANDARDS  137 

most  pedantic  accuracy  and  grammatical  cor- 
rectness. Those  very  same  boys  and  girls 
when  they  come  out  on  the  street  to  play  forget 
the  standards  to  which  they  conform  in  school, 
and  the  passer-by  hears  a  form  of  speech  which 
bears  no  resemblance  to  that  used  in  the 
presence  of  the  teacher.  On  the  street  the 
child  uses  the  form  of  speech  which  it  is  cus- 
tomary for  him  to  hear  from  his  companions 
and  at  home.  The  lesson  of  this  observation 
is  that  it  is  not  much  use  to  have  theoretical 
standards  if  one  is  constantly  in  association 
with  influences  that  pull  them  down,  that  de- 
part from  or  contradict  them.  We  act  and 
speak  chiefly  through  imitation.  We  do  and 
say  the  things  that  we  see  and  hear  done  and 
said.  Therefore,  our  associations  determine  in 
very  considerable  measure  what  sort  of  acts 
we  do  and  what  sort  of  words  we  use,  even 
though  we  have  a  standard  laid  away  some- 
where that  is  out  of  the  reach  of  dust  and  heat 
and  cold,  but  yet  a  standard  that  does  not 
shape  and  affect  our  daily  lives. 

The  surest  test  as  to  whether  a  human  being 
is  civilized  or  not  is  the  way  in  which  that 
human  being  acts  and  expresses  himself.  It 
is  of  the  highest  degree  of  importance  that 
men  should  have  truly  civilized  standards  of 


138  STANDARDS 

action  and  truly  civilized  standards  of  expres- 
sion, even  though  we  depart  from  them  tem- 
porarily through  forgetfulness  or  carelessness 
— standards  to  which  we  try  to  repair  when- 
ever we  stop  to  think  about  what  we  are  doing 
and  saying.  We  have  all  of  us  been  taught, 
even  those  who  have  been  at  school  for  the 
shortest  period,  the  simple,  elementary  rules 
governing  our  English  speech.  Yet  how  many 
of  us,  knowing  those  rules,  from  force  of  habit, 
through  association,  or  because  of  bad  example, 
depart  from  them  and  habitually  use  the  most 
extraordinary,  ungrammatical,  inaccurate,  and 
incorrect  expressions  ? 
Bad  habits  As  one  goes  about  in  crowded  places,  a  very 

speec  common  expression  to  meet  the  ear  is  this: 

"I  says  to  hirq,  says  I."  This  is  an  expres- 
sion that  no  human  being  would  ever  use  if 
his  ears  really  heard  it.  It  is  only  because  the 
speaker  does  not  really  hear  it,  does  not  know 
when  he  is  using  it,  that  he  departs  so  entirely 
from  the  ordinary  standards  observed  in  our 
daily  speech.  A  great  many  persons  seem  to 
think  that  correctness  of  speech  is  a  matter  of 
individual  temperament,  and  that  it  is  apt  to 
accompany  certain  lackadaisical  characteristics 
of  manner.  The  truth  is  quite  the  contrary  to 
this.     Few  things  so  completely  reveal  the  kind 


STANDARDS  139 

of  person  one  is  as  the  sort  of  speech  he  uses. 
One  need  not  use  the  speech  of  the  formal 
lecturer;  one  need  not  use  the  long,  involved 
words  and  phrases  which  sometimes  mark  the 
writing  even  of  reputable  authors;  but  any 
one  who  listens  and  who  understands  what  he 
says  and  hears,  who  thinks  and  speaks  with 
simple  correctness  and  dignity,  without  affec- 
tation, without  straining  for  effect,  and  espe- 
cially without  imitating  the  newspapers — that 
person  is  applying  a  standard  of  speech  which 
indicates  an  advanced  stage  of  civilization. 

In  a  very  few  days  this  whole  nation  will  Lincoln's 
celebrate  with  appropriate  exercises  the  one  s 
hundredth  anniversary  of  the  birth  of  Abra- 
ham Lincoln,  the  greatest  personality  that  ever 
lived  on  this  continent.  An  extraordinary 
thing  about  that  man  is  that,  born  in  squalor 
and  brought  up  in  poverty — such  poverty  as 
probably  no  one  of  us  has  ever  known  or  ap- 
proximated, no  matter  how  hard  our  conditions 
may  have  been — sent  to  school  for  the  fewest 
possible  number  of  days,  yet  he  delivered  some 
of  the  greatest  orations  in  the  English  language. 
Some  of  the  most  splendid,  simple,  and  direct 
English  that  we  know  was  the  English  of 
Abraham  Lincoln.  Where  did  he  get  it  ?  He 
got  it  just  where  others  can  get  it,  from  his 


i4o  STANDARDS 

very  simple  and  direct  nature  that  reflected 
without  guile  and  without  complexity  the  im- 
pressions and  convictions  that  he  had.  His 
style  was  influenced  largely  by  three  books, 
the  English  Bible,  Bunyan's  Pilgrim's  Progress, 
and  Aesop's  Fables.  I  suppose  that  there  are 
not  in  existence  three  better  books  to  read 
than  those.  Quite  apart  from  any  message 
that  they  contain,  if  we  desire  to  get  a  standard 
of  English  speech  that  will  be  simple,  correct, 
and  dignified,  they  may  well  be  our  model. 
The  noble  English  of  our  Bible,  the  simple  nar- 
rative English  of  John  Bunyan's  Pilgrim's 
Progress,  and  the  vigorous  and  direct  English 
into  which  Aesop's  Fables  were  turned  were  the 
source  of  Abraham  Lincoln's  English.  They 
can  be  the  source  and  the  standard  of  the  Eng- 
lish of  millions  of  others  as  well. 
Newspaper  No  one  who  writes  and  speaks  of  pure  Eng- 

Engiish  lish  can  pass  by  the  influence  of  the  modern 

newspaper.  It  is  hard  to  estimate  with  accu- 
racy the  probable  damage  that  it  does  every 
day  to  our  standards  of  speech  and  taste  and 
appreciation.  Even  to  look  at  the  front  page 
of  some  widely  circulated  newspapers  is  to  in- 
sure a  moral  and  aesthetic  disturbance.  We  buy 
them  for  one  cent  in  the  morning,  and  again 
for  one  cent  at  night.     We  have  always  before 


STANDARDS  141 

us  their  extravagant,  vulgar,  shrieking  head- 
lines in  large  capital  letters  and  bad  English, 
which  try  to  seize  us  by  the  collar  and  to  hold 
our  attention,  while  at  the  very  same  moment 
they  are  undermining  every  principle  and  stand- 
ard of  speech  to  which  we  ought  to  hold  fast. 
One  wonders  sometimes  how  a  great  popula- 
tion like  that  of  America  manages  to  stand 
those  daily  and  twice  daily  assaults  upon  its 
standards.  We  must  learn  to  protect  ourselves 
against  that  sort  of  thing,  and  the  only  way 
in  which  we  can  do  it  is  resolutely  to  turn  our 
attention  and  interest  toward  something  else; 
toward  something  that  is  really  worth  while, 
and  that  enters  with  more  genuine  value  into 
our  daily  life,  and  to  seek  the  companionship 
and  counsel  of  those  few  newspapers  that 
really  have  standards  and  try  to  enforce  them. 

We   are  surrounded   now  by  objects  which  influence  of 
reflect  and  are  examples  of  sound,  permanent  surroun  mss 

r  '    r  on  standards 

standards  of  taste.  The  whole  face  of  Ameri- 
can cities  has  changed  in  a  generation.  Almost 
all  of  this  new  and  splendid  architectural  work 
and  decoration  which  we  see  about  us  has  been 
done  in  the  last  twenty  or  twenty-five  years. 
Each  one  of  these  stately  and  beautiful  objects 
makes  a  direct  appeal  to  you  and  to  me  through 
our  taste,  our  judgment,  and  our  standards  of 


142 


STANDARDS 


Selfishness 

versus 

standards 


appreciation.  When  we  stop  to  look  at  one 
of  these  beautiful  modern  buildings,  whether 
it  is  a  great  library,  or  a  university  building, 
or  a  great  hotel,  or  a  well-designed  apartment- 
house  or  department  store,  we  are  in  the 
presence  of  something  that  really  represents 
civilization,  and  something  that  we  may  well 
be  glad  to  reflect  upon  and  try  to  understand 
and  enjoy  as  part  of  our  appreciation  of  what 
we  see  as  we  go  through  these  crowded  and 
busy  streets.  We  forget  how  much  of  the 
time  people  are  looking  elsewhere  for  some- 
thing that  is  right  before  their  faces.  The 
commonplace  and  the  familiar  will  usually 
reveal  to  each  one  of  us  that  of  which  we  are 
in  search,  if  we  only  have  patience  to  observe 
and  to  reflect  upon  our  observation. 

It  is  very  easy  to  misinterpret  and  to  be 
flippant  about  familiar  things  that  reveal  our 
standards  or  lack  of  them.  There  is  an  amus- 
ing story  which  illustrates  this.  A  teacher 
trying  to  teach  a  class  of  boys  something  about 
good  manners  and  morals  endeavored  to  be 
very  practical  in  his  work.  He  therefore 
asked  one  of  the  students  before  him  this 
question:  "Suppose  that  you  should  enter  a 
street-car  at  the  same  time  with  three  women, 
and  there  was  only  one  vacant  seat,  and  you 


STANDARDS  143 

rushed  forward  and  took  that  seat,  what  would 
you  call  that?"  The  teacher  was  trying  to 
show  how  easy  it  was  to  be  selfish,  and  how 
easy  it  was  to  recognize  selfishness  in  some  of 
its  commonplace  forms.  But  he  was  discon- 
certed when  his  pupil  very  promptly  answered: 
"I  should  call  that  presence  of  mind."  The 
boy  was  not  thinking  of  what  his  teacher  was 
trying  to  illustrate  to  him,  what  courtesy  is, 
what  good  manners  are  and  unselfishness.  He 
was  only  thinking  what  his  act  would  get  for 
him,  namely,  a  comfortable  seat.  That  is 
usually  the  trouble  when  we  set  about  apply- 
ing standards  of  conduct.  We  generally  want 
them  applied  by  some  one  else.  A  very  dis- 
tinguished statesman  said  not  long  ago  that  it 
is  becoming  the  ruling  passion  of  the  American 
people  to  give  advice  to  others,  to  mind  other 
people's  business.  There  is  more  truth  than 
fiction  in  that.  We  can  always  get  advice  as 
to  how  to  mind  our  business,  but  we  do  not 
often  get  principles  and  rules  set  before  us 
that  will  teach  us  how  best  to  manage  ourselves. 
The  average  man  does  not  stop  to  think 
about  this  matter  of  standards  nearly  as  much 
as  he  ought  to.  If  it  seems  worth  while  to 
the  government  to  spend  tens  of  thousands  of 
dollars   to   find   out  what   a  j'ard   actually   is, 


i44  STANDARDS 

and  what  a  pound  actually  is,  and  then  to 
keep  the  standard  yard  and  the  standard 
pound  where  nothing  can  happen  to  them, 
how  much  more  worth  while  ought  it  to  be 
for  us  to  find  out  what  our  standards  of  speech, 
taste,  and  conduct  ought  to  be,  and  to  keep 
them  where  no  harm  can  come  to  them  ?  The 
great  trouble  is,  especially  in  this  modern  life, 
where  we  live  lives  that  are  so  full,  where  we 
are  so  terribly  driven  to  get  the  day's  work 
done,  to  make  a  living,  that  when  a  moment 
of  leisure  really  comes,- so  many  different  things 
appeal  to  us  to  distract  our  attention  and  to 
press  us  this  way  or  that,  it  is  very  difficult 
for  us  to  learn  to  know  even  a  few  standards 
and  to  apply  them. 

There  is  no  greater  need  in  American  life 
than  for  the  steady,  persistent  application  of 
sound  standards  in  our  individual  lives.  The 
average  human  being  comes  into  the  world 
and  moves  through  it  for  a  short  space  of  time 
very  much  as  a  little  chip  may  be  seen  floating 
on  a  swiftly  moving  stream.  It  is  borne  on, 
it  is  tossed  about,  but  at  last  it  comes  to  smooth 
water  and  rests  there;  not  by  reason  of  an}' 
act  of  its  own,  but  by  reason  of  the  action  of 
the  stream  on  which  it  is  borne.  Most  of  us 
are  borne  helplessly  along  the  rapidly  moving 


STANDARDS  145 

stream  of  life  in  similar  fashion.  Whenever  a 
man  or  woman  appears  with  strength  and 
character  and  general  intelligence  and  ability 
enough  to  guide  and  direct  his  or  her  own 
movements,  we  recognize  the  presence  of  a 
strong  personality  and  a  great  leader.  The 
whole  world  looks  at  such  a  person  with 
admiration. 

There  are  a  few  real  leaders  in  the  world,  Self-mastery 
and  these  leaders  who  have  power,  whether  it 
be  in  the  realm  of  thought,-  in  literature,  in 
science,  in  government,  or  in  the  conduct  of 
daily  life,  we  naturally  turn  to  and  regard 
with  enthusiasm  and  reverence,  because  human 
leadership  is  a  very  fine  and  splendid  thing. 
While  great  leadership  and  distinction  may 
readily  be  denied  to  most,  nobody  can  deny 
another  the  privilege  and  the  opportunity  of 
seeking  to  know  and  to  apply  the  best  stand- 
ards to  himself.  There  is  one  nature  and  one 
mind  and  one  set  of  actions  that  each  one  of 
us  can  lead  and  direct.  There  is  one  person 
of  whom  we  can  take  control.  Slowly  and 
gradually  we  can  bring  that  person  to  give  up 
mere  imitation  and  artificiality  and  conform 
his  conduct  more  and  more  to  standards  of 
his  own  choosing.  We  can  determine  whether 
those   standards   shall   be   good    and    high,   or 


146  STANDARDS 

whether  they  shall  be  common  and  low.  For- 
tunately, nobody  has  ever  tried  to  organize 
society  on  the  lowest  and  meanest  estimates 
of  human  nature.  We  are  always  thinking 
that  the  world  is  going  to  be  better,  that  we 
are  going  to  improve,  and  that  the  march  of 
progress  is  up  and  not  down. 
Self-  If  it  were  in  my  power  to  prescribe  effect- 

improvement  £vejy  for  the  betterment  of  this  city  and 
country,  I  would  at  once  ask  of  each  indi- 
vidual three  very  simple  things,  and  three 
things  which  every  individual  has  it  in  his 
power  to  accomplish.  I  would  ask  him  to 
improve  his  speech,  to  improve  his  manners, 
and  to  improve  his  standards  of  taste  and 
appreciation. 

You  cannot  tell  from  a  person's  occupation 
what  sort  of  a  man  he  is.  One's  occupation 
is  not  always  a  matter  of  his  own  choice.  We 
take  such  work  as  we  can  get,  and  not  always 
the  work  that  we  most  like.  On  the  other  hand, 
you  can  always  estimate  a  human  being  from 
the  use  he  makes  of  his  leisure.  When  one  has 
a  leisure  moment,  such  as  a  half-holiday  or  a 
holiday,  then  he  does  the  thing  he  most  wants 
to  do,  or  that  he  is  most  inclined  to.  The  real 
tendencies  and  standards  of  a  human  being 
are  clearly  revealed  by  the  use  of  his  leisure. 


STANDARDS  147 

So  in  choosing  standards  of  speech,  stand- 
ards of  personal  manners  and  conduct,  stand- 
ards of  taste  and  appreciation,  one  must  watch 
carefully  the  use  that  he  makes  of  his  leisure, 
his  spare  time — those  moments  or  days  that 
occasionally  come  to  us  when  we  can  do  as 
we  please.  Then  it  is  that  we  reveal  ourselves 
according  to  our  natural  tastes;  then  it  is 
that  those  who  observe  us  can  tell  what  our 
standards  really  are.  Standards  are  not  wholly 
things  of  stone,  or  bronze,  or  silver,  or  gold, 
but  are  more  often  unseen  things,  like  ideas. 
Nobody  has  ever  seen  an  idea,  or  felt  one,  or 
held  one  in  his  hand;  but  in  the  whole  world 
there  is  nothing  so  powerful  as  an  idea.  The 
ideas  which  pass  through  the  human  mind  all 
have  tendencies  to  influence  our  movements, 
and  we  need  to  be  very  careful  as  to  the  ideas 
we  allow  habitually  to  occupy  our  minds,  for 
these  ideas  influence  the  acts  which  reveal  our 
standards. 

The  little  things  by  which  we  shape  our 
daily  life  are  the  things  by  which  our  char- 
acter is  at  once  revealed  and  tested.  Not  one 
person  in  a  hundred  thousand  is  going  t»o  be 
recorded  or  written  about  in  history,  even 
ephemeral  history.  This  fact  should  not  be 
allowed   to   make   any  difference   in   our  indi- 


148  STANDARDS 

vidual  lives.  It  is  each  human  mind  and  soul 
that  counts,  whether  conspicuous  or  not.  Some 
lives  may  be  more  conspicuous  than  others, 
more  eminent,  more  generally  serviceable,  but 
for  all  that  they  cannot  take  the  place  of  the 
one  life  which  is  intrusted  to  each  one  of  us. 
We  make  and  choose  the  standards  for  our 
own  lives,  and  we  must  both  apply  them  and 
be  held  responsible  for  them. 


VIII 
WASTE  IN  EDUCATION 


An  article  written  for  The  Outlook,  New  York, 
August  6,  1898 


WASTE  IN  EDUCATION 

An  intelligent  parent,  who  cares  about  edu- 
cation, and  who  thinks  about  it,  told  me  not 
long  ago  that  his  boy  of  fourteen  and  a  half 
years  was  in  rude  health  and  ready  to  pass  the 
Columbia  College  entrance  examinations.  He 
expressly  disclaimed  the  idea  that  the  boy  had 
unusual  ability  or  power  of  application,  and 
attributed  the  result  solely  to  the  fact  that  his 
son's  education  up  to  this  point  had  been  care- 
fully planned.  On  the  other  hand,  an  assist- 
ant superintendent  of  schools  in  New  York 
has  recently  stated  that  he  frequently  finds 
pupils  of  seventeen  or  eighteen  in  the  upper 
grades  of  the  elementary  schools.  It  is  ob- 
vious that  their  education  had  not  been  planned. 
Lack  of  plan,  bad  plan,  stupid  plan,  ignorance 
in  plan — these  are  the  causes  of  the  waste  in 
education  that  is  so  frightful  in  the  United 
States. 

A  plan  for  a  child's  education  may  or  may  Rigid  system 

,  ,  rn      .  j         •(•  i  a  cause  of 

not  involve  much  system,      lo  identity  a  plan  waste 
with  a  highly  organized    and  wasteful  system 
is  one  of  the  blunders  most  commonly  made. 
151 


152  WASTE  IN  EDUCATION 

Detailed  systems  are  usually  wasteful  when 
rigidly  administered,  because,  in  the  anxiety 
to  make  them  symmetrical  and  to  have  them 
look  well,  their  administrators  lose  all  sense  of 
proportion.  If  a  child,  on  mastering  the  words 
given  on  the  first  twenty  pages  of  his  Second 
Reader,  is  able,  with  a  little  help,  to  read  in- 
telligently in  the  Third  Reader  or  even  in  the 
Fourth — and  not  a  few  children  are  able  to  do 
this — it  is  both  wasteful  and  a  form  of  fetish- 
worship  to  keep  him  dragging  through  the 
intervening  pages.  Nowadays  the  less  that 
children  see  of  Third  Readers  and  Fourth 
Readers  the  better;  but  the  illustration  holds. 
Boys  who  go  to  college  at  eighteen  have,  as  a 
rule,  spent  from  one-sixth  to  one-fourth  of 
their  entire  school  life  in  studying  mathematics. 
Yet  they  know  very  little  mathematics;  what 
they  do  know  they  usually  know  very  imper- 
fectly. They  have  wasted  untold  months, 
perhaps  years.  The  mathematics  superstition 
is  still  very  strong  in  this  country,  although 
its  influence  is  visibly  diminishing.  Mathe- 
matics is  commonly  thought  to  be  more  "prac- 
tical" than  literature,  or  science,  or  history, 
which  is  not  true;  and  to  be  an  unrivalled 
training  for  the  reasoning  powers,  which  is 
easily  disproved.     Mathematics  has   an  indis- 


WASTE  IN  EDUCATION  153 

pensable  place  in  education,  of  course,  but 
that  place  is  a  much  more  subordinate  one 
than  it  has  been  in  the  habit  of  occupying  in 
America.  It  is,  as  now  administered,  a  very- 
wasteful  subject  of  instruction,  and  more  than 
any  other  it  impedes  the  improvement  of  the 
average  course  of  study.  The  child  first  "goes 
through"  a  primary,  or  elementary,  arithmetic; 
then  he  "goes  through"  an  advanced  arith- 
metic, devoting  more  than  half  his  time  to  the 
identical  topics  contained  in  his  former  text- 
book. This  is  simple  waste,  of  course.  The 
problem  of  the  arrested  development  of  chil- 
dren, which  is  the  most  fruitful  field  of  investiga- 
tion that  lies  before  the  child-study  specialists, 
is  bound  to  engage  more  and  more  attention; 
and  I  am  of  opinion  that  the  closer  we  get 
to  it  the  more  clearly  will  it  appear  that  math- 
ematics, as  it  is  taught,  is  a  chief  offender. 
I  am  familiar  with  a  public-school  system  in 
which  much  time  is  given  to  mathematics. 
The  elementary-school  children  study  it  for 
many  hours  each  week.  Those  of  them  who 
get  into  the  high  school  keep  at  it  with  the 
same  devotion  and  energy,  and  study  pretty 
much  the  same  subjects  as  they  did  when  in 
the  elementary  schools.  When  the  brightest 
high-school   graduates   pass  over  into  the  city 


a  child's 
education 


154  WASTE  IN  EDUCATION 

training  class  to  fit  themselves  to  teach,  the 
asking  of  three  questions  is  often  sufficient  to 
prove  that  they  do  not  know  any  mathematics, 
that  they  have  not  the  dimmest  idea  of  what 
it  is  all  about,  and  that  its  boasted  power  of 
logical  training  has  been  wholly  lost  on  them. 
What  it  has  done  is  to  keep  them  from  learning 
something  else.  So  they  are  taught  the  same 
mathematics  again.  This  is  not  an  isolated, 
but  a  fairly  typical,  instance  of  what  is  going 
on  all  over  this  country. 
How  to  plan  To  plan  intelligently  for  a  child's  education 
means  to  keep  him  constantly  at  something 
that  is  new  and  something  that  is  real  to  him, 
something  that  is  adapted  to  his  capacity  and 
related  to  what  he  already  knows.  It  is  to 
make  a  plan  for  a  particular  child;  but  it  may 
involve  grave  error  to  copy  it  exactly  for  his 
brothers  or  sisters  or  cousins  or  friends.  It  is 
to  make  a  plan  that  aims  to  discover  and  to 
develop  capacity,  no  matter  how  young  the 
child  may  be.  Whatever  the  variations  in 
detail,  literature  and  nature-study  should  be 
the  earliest  and  ever-present  elements  of  any 
plan.  From  the  hours  that  a  child  spends  in 
his  mother's  arms,  he  should  be  brought  into 
contact  with  the  material  and  the  form  of 
genuine  literature,  literature  that  means  some- 


WASTE  IN  EDUCATION  155 

thing.  This  does  not  mean  Homer  or  Dante 
or  Shakspere,  of  course,  but  the  fairy-tales, 
the  myths,  and  the  nursery  rhymes  that  are 
part  of  the  literary  inheritance  of  the  race. 
A  boy  ought  to  know  a  good  deal  of  literature, 
to  love  it,  and  to  have  caught  a  bit  of  the 
literary  spirit,  if  only  by  imitation,  even  be- 
fore he  knows  by  sight  more  than  half  the 
letters  of  the  alphabet.  From  his  first  stum- 
bling steps  about  the  nursery  he  should  be  kept 
similarly  in  contact  with  nature  in  some  form. 
Animals  and  growing  plants  should  be  his  earli- 
est teachers  in  nature-study,  and  when  he  first 
takes  his  seat  in  an  organized  school,  a  con- 
siderable number  of  the  facts  of  nature  should 
be  familiar  to  him  and  he  should  be  truly  ap- 
preciative of  them.  To  the  query  as  to  how 
this  is  possible,  it  may  be  bluntly  answered 
that  it  is  possible  because  it  has  been  done 
and  is  being  done  all  the  time  by  intelligent 
and  observant  mothers.  Of  course,  if  the  child 
is  so  unfortunate  as  to  be  given  at  this  time 
the  task  of  acquiring  some  facility  in  speaking 
French  or  German,  from  association  with  a 
nurse-maid  or  a  nursery  governess,  at  the  ex- 
pense of  gaining  an  idiomatic  and  careful  use 
of  the  mother  tongue,  and  if  all  his  mental 
energy  is  turned  inward   instead  of  outward, 


156  WASTE  IN  EDUCATION 

then  an  educational  chaos  is  likely  to  result 
that  does  incalculable  damage  and  prevents 
any  number  of  good  things  from  taking  place 
in  his  mental  life. 

Once  in  school,  the  chief  elements  of  wasted 
time  for  the  child  are:  (1)  annual,  or  even  semi- 
annual, promotions  that  may  not  be  departed 
from;  (2)  reviews  and  examinations  in  the  in- 
terest of  so-called  thoroughness;  and  (3)  bad 
teaching. 
The  system  A  school  that  moves  forward  in  February  or 

ncTthecMid     June  in  soucl  Pnalanx>  an(*  tnen  onlv>  might  do 
for  the  for  wooden   Indians,   but   it   is   not   suited   to 

growing  human  beings.  A  pupil  ought  to  be 
changed  in  grade  just  as  often  as  it  is  appar- 
ent that  he  is  either  overtaxed  where  he  is,  or 
that  he  is  not  taxed  enough.  Theories  must 
give  way  to  facts.  The  system  is  for  the 
pupils,  not  the  pupils  for  the  system.  Of 
course,  to  deal  with  the  needs  and  capacities 
of  each  pupil  costs  trouble;  but  then  all  edu- 
cation is  more  or  less  troublesome  to  some- 
body. It  worries  some  principals  and  teachers 
to  think  that  a  pupil  promoted  in  November, 
for  instance,  will  be  likely  to  "lose"  all  that 
his  old  class  goes  over  from  November  till 
February,  and  all  that  his  new  class  has  gone 
over    from    September    to    November.     What 


system 


WASTE  IN  EDUCATION  157 

there  is  to  worry  about  is  a  puzzle  to  me.  It 
seems  rather  a  cause  for  congratulation  that 
this  particular  child  can  get  along  without 
some  scraps  of  information  that  others  seem 
to  need. 

The  fetish  of  thoroughness  is  another  form  Thoroughness 
of  the  pedagogue's  paganism.  To  know  a 
thing  thoroughly  does  not  necessarily  mean, 
happily,  to  be  able  to  call  it  by  name,  or  to  re- 
call it  on  any  and  every  occasion,  but  to  know 
its  relations  to  other  things  or  occurrences, 
its  causes  and  its  effects.  That  sort  of  knowl- 
edge comes,  and  can  only  come,  from  reflec- 
tion. To  do  a  thing  or  to  repeat  a  thing  over 
and  over  is  by  no  means  to  reflect  upon  it. 
Repetitions  are  not  always  reviews,  and  mem- 
ory tests  are  rarely  examinations.  A  review 
and  an  examination  should  always  be  reflec- 
tive in  character.  Then  they  make  for  real, 
rather  than  for  sham,  thoroughness;  then  only 
are  they  genuine  educational  exercises.  To 
ask  a  boy  to  prove  the  theorem  that  "Tri- 
angles which  have  an  angle  in  each  equal,  and 
the  including  sides  proportional,  are  similar," 
may  or  may  not  show  that  he  knows  what  he 
is  talking  about.  But  to  ask  him,  "What  is 
meant  by  the  similarity  of  triangles  ?  When 
are  two  triangles  similar,  and  why?"  will  very 


158  WASTE  IN  EDUCATION 

soon  enable  you  to  ascertain  whether  the  boy 
is  really  learning  geometry  or  not.  The  best 
and  fairest  sort  of  examination  is  one  that  asks 
pupils  no  question  that  they  have  ever  seen 
before.  To  answer  such  questions  correctly 
requires  the  power  to  think,  not  merely  the 
ability  to  remember;  and  it  is  the  power  to 
think  that  we  are  trying  to  train  and  to  test. 
Besides,  it  is  just  such  questions  that  real  life 
will  put  to  the  child  continually  when  he 
grows  up. 
Bad  teaching  Finally,  there  is  bad  teaching,  without  men- 
tion of  which  no  paper  on  education  is  quite 
complete.  As  it  is  practically  impossible  to 
secure  the  dismissal  from  public-school  posi- 
tions of  hard-working  and  deserving  young 
women  "simply  because  they  cannot  teach," 
we  are  likely  to  have  this  chief  cause  of  waste 
with  us  for  another  century  or  two  while  pub- 
lic opinion  is  learning  what  education  really 
means.  In  private  schools,  however,  the  task 
of  getting  rid  of  incompetent  teachers  ought 
to  be  easy.  Intelligent  parents  ought  to  find 
out  what  good  teaching  is,  and  withhold  their 
children  from  anything  else.  But  my  obser- 
vation is  that  they  do  not  do  this.  A  certain 
type  of  parent  will  ask  which  private  secondary 
school   is   fashionable,   or  which   has   the   best 


WASTE  IN  EDUCATION  159   ' 

athletic  record,  or  which  sent  the  largest  num- 
ber of  boys  into  college  last  year  without 
conditions;  and,  on  finding  out  about  these 
things,  they  throw  their  innocent  children  into 
the  hopper.  The  burden  of  proof  is  nowadays 
on  a  financially  successful  school;  it  must 
demonstrate  that  it  really  educates,  despite 
its  success.  On  the  other  hand,  it  will  not  do 
to  go  to  the  opposite  extreme,  and  infer  that 
when  a  school  is  a  financial  failure  it  is  because 
of  its  excellence.     That  is  bad  logic. 

No  parent  can  afford  to  send  his  child  to  a 
teacher  who  does  not  habitually  make  special 
preparation  for  every  lesson  or  class  exercise. 
The  oftener  a  lesson  has  been  given  the  more 
wooden  it  is  likely  to  be,  unless  special  thought 
is  given  to  its  presentation.  Time  not  prepared 
for  is,  in  school  life,  time  wasted.  No  single 
element  contributes  so  much  to  live,  practical 
teaching  as  careful  preparation  for  every  les- 
son. 

Another  and  very  prolific  source  of  waste  Differences 
in  education  is  due  to  the  time-honored  illu-  J^*" 
sion  that  all  boys  and  girls  are  born  equal — 
equal  to  anything,  apparently.  The  blessings 
of  the  principle  of  choice,  which  in  higher  edu- 
cation is  known  as  the  elective  system,  are 
being  so  rapidly  extended,  however,  that  this 


160  WASTE  IN  EDUCATION 

obstacle  to  progress  will  be  steadily  diminished. 
Choice  may  sometimes  be  exercised  by  a  par- 
ent on  his  child's  behalf,  but  as  soon  as  ca- 
pacity and  taste  begin  to  show  themselves  the 
pupil  will  do  his  own  choosing,  to  the  immense 
benefit  of  his  moral,  as  well  as  of  his  intellec- 
tual, nature.  To  overtax  the  nervous  system 
of  a  child  is  in  the  highest  degree  wasteful. 
Not  to  have  him  take  ample  time  for  system- 
atic and  vigorous  physical  exercise,  preferably 
in  the  open  air,  is  wasteful.  To  allow  or  to 
compel  children  to  carry  on  more  than  four, 
or  at  most  five,  subjects  of  study  at  one  and 
the  same  time  is  wasteful.  For  the  parent  or 
the  teacher  not  to  know  about  the  laws  gov- 
erning a  child's  physical  and  mental  growth  is 
excessively  wasteful.  Read,  for  example,  Doc- 
tor Francis  Warner's  Study  of  Children  and 
Preyer's  Infant  Mind,  and  see  how  much  light 
they  throw  on  what  is  going  on  before  our  eyes 
every  day,  and  to  which  we  are,  as  a  rule, 
wholly  blind. 
Poor  Even  so  good  a  thing  as  the  present  wide- 

spread revival  of  interest  in  education  has 
been  productive  of  waste,  by  putting  into  the 
hands  of  undiscriminating  readers  a  mass  of 
what  has  been  appropriately  termed  stufF, 
bearing    the    name    of   educational    literature. 


educational 
literature 


WASTE  IN  EDUCATION  161 

Some  of  the  books  and  periodicals  that  purport 
to  deal  with  education  are  enough  to  make  one 
regret  the  invention  of  printing.  To  para- 
phrase one  of  Speaker  Reed's  happy  character- 
izations, they  cannot  be  read  without  subtract- 
ing from  the  sum  of  human  knowledge.  Some 
of  them  bear  otherwise  reputable  names.  But 
they  are  simply  dreadful.  Yet  they  are  often 
read,  sometimes  quoted,  and  occasionally  fol- 
lowed. Untold  waste  may  be  attributed  to 
this  source.  A  pressing  need  in  education 
to-day  is  an  index  that  will  pillory  the  bad 
books  and  the  hopelessly  befogged  and  routine 
educational  journals. 

The  most  serious  aspect  of  the  waste  that 
surrounds  us  on  every  side  is  not  the  waste 
of  time;  that  could  perhaps  be  endured.  It 
is  the  dissipation  of  energy,  the  loss  of  effective- 
ness, the  blunting  of  natural  capacity  and 
aptitude.  As  a  result,  we  grow  accustomed  to 
low  standards  of  performance  and  to  acquiesce 
in  them.  We  open  our  eyes  in  amazement  at 
what  is  only  fitness  or  adaptation  of  an  indi- 
vidual to  his  task,  and  call  upon  the  word 
genius  to  hide  our  inability  to  explain  how  it 
happened. 

A  strange  thing  is  that  almost  every  intelli- 
gent person  accepts  these  principles  as  soon  as 


162  WASTE  IN  EDUCATION 

they  are  stated;  they  are  so  obvious.  But  the 
merest  fraction  of  these  same  intelligent  per- 
sons act  upon  them.  In  consequence,  their 
children  waste  both  time  and  opportunity,  and 
society  suffers  sorely. 


IX 


THE  CONDUCT  OF  THE   KINDER- 
GARTEN 


An  address  before  the  Kindergarten  Department  of  the 
National  Educational  Association  at  Los  Angeles, 
California,  July  12,  1899 


THE  CONDUCT  OF  THE  KINDER- 
GARTEN 

There  are  two  well-known  and  easily  dis- 
tinguishable forms  of  educational  criticism. 
There  is,  first  of  all,  that  of  the  censorious 
critic,  who  seeks  for  weaknesses  in  points  of 
detail,  who  lacks  equally  a  sense  of  proportion 
and  a  sense  of  humor,  and  who  overlooks  the 
fact  that  in  the  working  out  of  great  funda- 
mental principles,  not  even  the  greatest  of 
them  flows  to  its  full  application  without  some 
slowing  of  the  current  or  some  eddy  in  the 
stream.  Such  is  the  criticism  which  tends  to 
ridicule,  to  break  down,  to  destroy,  and  it  is 
wholly  unworthy  of  attention  in  any  form. 

There  is,  on  the  other  hand,  a  criticism 
which  is  sympathetic,  which  is  appreciative, 
and  which,  with  some  insight  into  the  aim 
and  methods  of  an  educational  movement, 
points  out  ways  and  methods  of  strengthening 
and  improving  that  movement  with  the  de- 
clared purpose  of  building  up  a  more  enduring 
educational  superstructure. 

Having,  as  I  have,  so  profound  an  admira- 
165 


Hegel 


1 66  THE  CONDUCT  OF 

tion  for  the  spirit,  methods,  and  aim  of  the 
kindergarten,  and  being  so  absolutely  con- 
vinced, not  only  of  its  excellence  as  an  edu- 
cational factor  in  its  own  place,  but  of  its  value 
as  an  inspiration  to  all  education,  it  would  be 
quite  impossible  for  me  to  meet  this  depart- 
ment in  any  spirit  but  that  of  a  kindly  and 
constructive  criticism. 
Froebeiand  You  are,  of  course,  familiar  with  the  state- 

ment, often  made,  that  the  philosophies  of 
Froebel  and  of  Hegel,  containing  the  deepest 
insights  of  the  German  philosophy  of  this  cen- 
tury, are  more  popular  in  the  United  States 
than  at  home.  The  inference  is  drawn  that 
Germany  has  outgrown  their  inspiration  and 
motive  power;  and  the  inference  is  equally 
suggested  to  us  that  we  are  trading  here  upon 
second-hand  material.  I  do  not  believe  that 
to  be  true.  It  is  certainly  true  that  the  kin- 
dergarten is  to-day  upon  a  higher  plane,  is 
more  efficient,  more  wide-spread,  and  more 
honored  in  America  than  in  any  other  culture 
nation.  I  cannot  interpret  that  fact  to  our 
discredit.  It  is  equally  true  that  the  great 
seed-thought  of  Hegel — the  evolution  of  the 
human  spirit,  reflecting  the  single  principle, 
common  alike  to  nature  and  to  mind,  which 
is   rightly  called   divine — it   is  true  that  that 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  167 

seed-thought  and  that  insight  into  life  are 
more  highly  esteemed,  more  studied,  and  more 
fully  applied  to-day  by  American  scholars 
than  by  those  of  any  other  nation.  I  cannot  in- 
terpret that  fact  to  our  discredit.  If  Germany 
has  seen  fit  to  turn  her  face,  in  part  at  least, 
toward  some  gods  which  others  can  but  con- 
sider false,  and  away  from  the  wisest  of  her 
teachers,  this  will  but  fasten  our  hold  the 
stronger  on  those  truths  of  which  we  seem  so 
sure. 

One  criticism  which  is  made  in  a  construe-  is  the 
tive  spirit  upon  the  wTork  of  the  kindergarten  too  ^^^ 
is  that  it  often  exalts  the  letter  above  the 
spirit;  that  it  tends  to  make  static,  definite, 
and  permanent  the  forms  of  procedure,  kinds 
of  material,  and  methods  of  intellectual,  moral, 
and  social  development,  which  are  not  ends  in 
themselves,  but  rather  rungs  of  a  ladder  by 
which  the  child-spirit  climbs  to  a  higher  view- 
point from  which  outlook  on  life  becomes 
broader  and  richer.  There  is  basis  for  that 
criticism.  One  danger  in  which  the  kinder- 
garten has  stood  lies  in  what  may  be  called 
the  worship  of  literal  form  as  distinguished 
from  exaltation  of  the  spirit,  which  clothes  it- 
self in  ever-varying  forms.  How  has  that 
come   about  when   the   real   spirit  of  Froebel, 


i6S  THE  CONDUCT  OF 

like  the  real  spirit  of  Hegel,  is  so  clearly  and 
surely  a  principle  of  development  ?  There  is 
only  one  answer  to  that  question.  It  is  be- 
cause in  some  parts  of  this  country  the  kinder- 
garten movement,  appealing  to  the  philan- 
thropic instinct  of  men  and  women  not  highly 
trained  to  think,  has  furnished  them  with 
educational  material  which  they  have  seemed 
to  understand,  and  with  which  they  have  too 
often  been  satisfied.  In  other  words,  the  sure 
method  of  escape  from  that  particular  lower- 
ing of  the  tone  of  kindergarten  thought  and 
practise  lies  in  the  one  thing  which  the  kin- 
dergartner  most  needs  to-day — wider  scholar- 
ship. It  is  too  often  supposed  that  because  the 
kindergarten  teacher  is  dealing  with  the  very 
young  child,  an  emptiness  of  mind  coupled 
with  amiability  of  disposition  will  suffice  to 
direct  the  child's  spiritual  development.  A 
stupid  person  may  perhaps  direct  education 
at  that  stage  where  some  adequate  conscious- 
ness of  the  subject-matter  is  had  by  the  pupil 
himself;  but  no  wisdom  is  too  great  to  deal 
with  the  young  child,  who  can  approach  his 
subject-matter  through  symbols  only. 

What  is  most  needed  to-day  in  this  work  is 
a  higher  standard  of  excellence  in  the  training 
of  kindergartners.     I  mean  a  broader  general 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  169 

preparation,  a  more  wide-spread  conviction  as 
to  the  importance  of  thorough  preparation. 
The  resources  of  literature,  science,  art,  and 
music  must  be  drawn  upon  to  the  largest  pos- 
sible extent.  It  is  all  well  enough  to  learn, 
partly  by  instruction  and  partly  by  a  period 
of  apprenticeship,  something  of  the  mode  of 
kindergarten  procedure.  But  unless  that  pro- 
cedure be  inspired  and  illuminated  by  a  grasp 
upon  general  culture  and  modern  scientific 
information,  nothing  but  a  formal  and  barren 
education  will  result. 

Too  many  low-standard  kindergarten  train- 
ing-classes are  at  the  bottom  of  some  of  our 
faults.  They  have  low  standards  of  admis- 
sion, low  ideals  of  training,  and  are  too  often 
satisfied  with  training  in  technic  and  form, 
trusting  that  time  will  repair  the  damage 
or  experience  remove  it.  That  kindergarten 
teacher  who  is  not  constantly  and  continually 
a  student,  and  a  student  along  those  great 
lines  of  human  effort  which  I  have  named, 
will  sooner  or  later  dry  up  her  inspiration  at 
its  source.  First  of  all  she  must  have  scholar- 
ship, not  only  in  entering  upon  the  work,  but 
afterward  as  well;  a  constant  and  broader 
study,  which  is  truly  philosophic,  because 
comparative,  and  because  it  puts  itself  under 


170  TEE  CONDUCT  OF 

the  guidance  of  the  best  teachers;    one  which 
is  also  practical  in  the  highest  sense  because  it 
brings  its  resources  to  a  focus  every  morning 
in  the  kindergarten  room. 
The  Another  criticism  which  is  sometimes  made, 

*  r^&TJ^  and  with  which  my  observation  leads  me  to 

not  a  separate  J 

institution  find  myself  in  sympathy,  is  that  the  kinder- 
garten is  often  attached  in  an  external  manner 
to  an  organic  scheme  or  school  system,  and  is 
not  conceived  as  an  integral  part  of  one  process 
of  child  development.  It  was  easy  for  such  a 
condition  to  come  about,  because  the  kinder- 
garten, in  its  inception,  represented  ideas 
which  were  wholly  strange  to  the  schoolmas- 
ter's mind.  The  kindergartners  were,  there- 
fore, thrown  back  upon  themselves,  and  in- 
crusted  themselves  with  a  shell  for  protection. 
It  is  now  necessary  for  us  to  make  sure  that 
the  shell  does  not  stiffen  and  harden,  making 
growth  impossible. 

It  is  easy  to  mark  off  in  large  periods  all  de- 
velopment of  the  human  mind.  It  is  easy 
enough  to  mark  off  in  large  periods  all  growth 
of  the  human  body.  But  who  ever  saw  the 
body  or  the  mind  grow  ?  The  subtle  process 
goes  on  before  our  eyes,  wholly  unseen,  unob- 
served. It  does  not  obey  any  arithmetical 
law;    it  is  not  subject  to  precise  measurement 


TEE  KINDERGARTEN  171 

or  to  scientific  observation.  We  gather  up 
those  things  which  we  call  marks  of  progress 
and  dwell  upon  them,  but  we  are  unable  to 
put  our  hand  on  the  point  where  one  stage 
passes  into  the  other.  Therefore  the  educa- 
tional scheme  which  tries  to  base  itself  upon 
hard-and-fast  periods  is  false  to  the  vital  prin- 
ciple of  growth. 

It  is  impossible  to  say  how  many  years  are 
necessary,  in  every  case,  for  kindergarten  in- 
struction. I  am  confident  that  in  the  case  of 
some  children  the  symbolic  period  may  be 
passed  in  one-half  the  time  that  other  children 
may  take;  and  we,  believing  in  the  principle 
of  individuality  and  preaching  it  to  others, 
must  not  fail  to  apply  it  to  ourselves.  This 
means  that  the  child  must  be  released  for  the 
elementary  school  as  soon  as  he  is  ready  for 
it — but  no  sooner — so  far  as  we  are  able  to 
observe  and  know. 

I  am  inclined  to  resist  the  contention  that 
the  kindergarten  is  a  course  of  study.  I  have 
no  objection  to  "courses  of  study,"  in  the 
sense  in  which  the  term  is  often  used;  but  I 
object  very  much  to  the  theory  that  the  child 
who  is  able  to  take  the  third  step  must  not  be 
allowed  to  take  it  because  he  has  not  taken 
the    second.     I    do   not   believe   in    holding   a 


172  TEE  CONDUCT  OF 

child  back  for  the  sake  of  the  "thoroughness" 
or  "completeness"  of  the  course  of  study.  I 
believe  the  human  mind  in  education  should 
always  be  put  at  that  task  for  which  it  is  com- 
petent; and  it  is  "pedagogical,"  not  educa- 
tional, to  insist  that  every  step  be  covered,  no 
matter  at  what  expenditure  of  time,  when  the 
power  to  advance  more  rapidly  is  present. 
Therefore,  it  is  necessary  for  the  kindergarten 
to  beware  of  holding  children  back.  We  do 
not  want  the  elementary  school  to  hold  back 
those  who  are  ready  for  the  high  school;  we 
do  not  want  the  high  school  to  hold  back  those 
who  are  ready  for  college;  or  the  college,  those 
who  are  ready  for  the  university.  We  cannot 
put  the  child  of  three  to  seven  years  of  age  in 
a  strait-jacket  and  say  that  there  he  must 
stay  for  a  fixed  time,  regardless  of  his  natural 
ability  or  accomplishments. 

Because  the  line  of  demarcation  is  so  difficult 
to  establish,  it  has  become  the  duty  of  the 
kindergartner  to  acquaint  herself  in  a  general 
way  (it  is  impracticable  to  do  it  in  detail)  with 
the  principles,  methods,  and  ideals  of  the  ele- 
mentary school.  There  must  be  the  most  ab- 
solute sympathy  between  the  kindergarten  and 
the  grades  above  it;  and  we  are  in  these  days 
rightly  calling  upon  teachers  of  the  lower  grades 


TUE  KINDERGARTEN  173 

of  the  elementary  school  to  master  the  spirit 
of  the  followers  of  Froebel.  Sympathy  comes 
from  mutual  understanding  and  knowledge. 
In  this  way  the  kindergarten  will  become  at- 
tached to  the  school,  and  no  longer  be  a  sepa- 
rate and  distinct  part  of  the  educational 
scheme;  it  will  take  its  natural  place  as  one 
of  the  various  stages  in  the  growth  of  one 
living  and  organic  human  mind. 

I  know  that  there  is  a  great  demand  that 
those  who  go  into  the  kindergarten  work  shall 
know  the  principles  of  elementary-school  teach- 
ing, and  that  elemental)'  teachers  shall  go  into 
the  schools  with  a  knowledge  of  the  work  and 
purposes  of  the  kindergarten.  This  demand  is 
made  by  the  best  educational  sentiment  and 
opinion.  It  remains  for  kindergartners  to  do 
their  share  in  satisfying  that  demand  by  study- 
ing the  principles  of  elementary-school  work  and 
by  occasionally  supplying  elementary  teachers 
from  their  own  ranks. 

It  is  sometimes  said  that  the  kindergarten  is  The 
at  war  with  the  home;  that  these  children  of  ^ ^  thThlme 
tender  years  should  be  under  their  mother's 
care;  that  it  is  unnatural  for  children  of  that 
age  to  be  brought  together  in  groups  for  in- 
struction, however  needful  it  may  be.  I  hold 
the  contrary  opinion.     I  think  that  of  all  forms 


174  THE  CONDUCT  OF 

of  educational  work,  none  has  been  so  success- 
ful, as  yet,  as  the  kindergarten  in  reaching  and 
uplifting  the  home;  and  the  kindergarten  which 
does  not  have  a  mothers'  class  attached  to  it  is 
not  a  kindergarten  in  the  best  sense  of  the  word. 
Again,  .we  sometimes  hear  it  said  that  the 
kindergarten  is  an  admirable  thing  for  the 
children  of  the  poor;  that  their  children  are 
neglected,  dirty,  unkempt,  uncared  for;  that 
the  children  of  the  well-to-do  need  not  be  found 
in  the  kindergarten.  In  the  first  place,  I  re- 
sent such  a  distinction  as  wholly  undemocratic 
and  uneducational.  In  the  second  place,  look- 
ing forward  as  I  do  to  the  next  great  educa- 
tional problem  of  this  country,  which  will  be, 
not  the  education  of  the  poor,  but  the  educa- 
tion of  the  rich,  I  am  forced  to  wonder  how  the 
children  of  the  rich  can  afford  to  be  without 
the  advantages  of  the  kindergarten.  It  is  a 
serious  thing  when,  in  our  social  and  economic 
efforts,  a  line  of  class  distinction  is  drawn.  We 
have  only  to  look  at  England  to  see  how,  with 
her  high  ideals,  great  opportunities,  and  large 
expenditures  for  education,  the  people  find 
themselves  hampered  at  every  turn  in  striving 
to  effect  reforms,  by  social"  and  economic  dis- 
tinctions. We  must  not  allow  these  to  enter 
into  our  educational  work. 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  175 

One  more  point  is  important  because  in  that  The 
particular    the    kindergarten    is    widely    mis-  fnndded'gs^e 
understood.     You  hear  the  criticism  from  the 
elementary-school  teacher,  made  with  the  best 
of  intentions,  but  from  what  I  hold  to  be  a 
wrong  point  of  view,  that  the  kindergarten  is 
disorderly,  that  it  has  not  the  discipline  and 
the  definiteness  of  routine  of  the  elementary 
school.     The   kindergarten   is,   therefore,   held 
to  be  a  disintegrating  influence  in  the  develop- 
ment of  the  child,  and  to  increase  the  task  of 
discipline  later  on.     My  reply  to  this  criticism 
is  that  it  arises  from  what  seems  to  me  to  be  a 
wholly  false  conception  of  discipline  or  order. 
Suppose   an   observer   passing   over  this   busy 
city  in  a  balloon  were  able  to  look  down  upon 
its  crowded  streets,  on  which  men  and  women 
are  passing  and   repassing  in  every  direction, 
each  going  to  his  appointed  task  without  in- 
terfering with  his  fellow;    would  such  a  scene 
be  one  of  disorder,  because  the  human  beings 
within  the  observer's  field  of  vision  were  not 
massed   in   phalanx   and   controlled   as   a  unit 
by  a  military  drill-master  ?     I  think  not.     The 
scene  would  be  one  of  a  very  high  type  of  order 
indeed,  one  much  higher,  in  fact,  than  the  order 
of  a  marching  regiment.     Order  is  not  an  ex- 
ternal form,  but  an  inner  habit — the  habit  of 


176  TEE  KINDERGARTEN 

going  in  a  purposeful  way,  with  due  regard  to 
the  purposes  and  rights  of  others,  about  some 
definite  thing,  even  though  the  lines  cross  and 
recross.  To  substitute  for  this  high  type  of 
order  a  single,  definite  form  is  to  substitute  the 
order  which  is  death  for  the  order  which  is 
life;  and  my  response  to  such  a  criticism  is  that 
I  should  prefer  to  see  more  of  the  kindergarten 
order  in  the  lower  grades  of  the  elementary 
school  and  less  of  the  elementary-school  order 
in  the  kindergarten. 

It  is  a  striking  fact,  and  one  of  the  most 
hopeful  signs  to  be  found  to-day  in  all  educa- 
tion, that  the  two  extremes  of  the  educational 
process,  the  kindergarten  and  the  university, 
are  the  two  greatest  conservators  of  individ- 
ualism; and  it  is  only  as  the  individual  is  being 
rescued  from  the  routine  of  the  intervening 
school  periods  that  these  periods  are  rising  to 
perfection  and  efficiency.  The  great  hope  of 
our  school  system  lies  in  the  fact  that  the  spirit 
of  individualism  is  working  down  from  the 
university  and  up  from  the  kindergarten,  and 
that  some  day  the  two  lines  of  development 
will  meet  and  will  hold  the  whole  educational 
process  within  their  spheres  of  influence. 


X 


RELIGIOUS     INSTRUCTION    AND    ITS 
RELATION    TO    EDUCATION 


An  address  at  St.  Bartholomew's  Church,  New  York, 
under  the  auspices  of  the  Sunday  School  Commis- 
sion of  the  Diocese  of  New  York,  October  14,  1899 


RELIGIOUS     INSTRUCTION    AND    ITS 
RELATION   TO    EDUCATION 

The  problems  of  what  is  called  religious 
education  are  part  of  the  problem  of  educa- 
tion as  a  whole. 

True  education,  as  distinguished  from  the 
innumerable  false  uses  of  the  word,  is  a  unitary 
process.  It  knows  no  mathematically  ac- 
curate subdivisions.  It  admits  of  no  chemical 
analysis  into  elements,  each  of  which  has  a 
real  existence  apart  from  the  whole.  When 
stretched  upon  a  dissecting-table  education  is 
already  dead.  Its  constituent  parts  are  in- 
teresting and,  in  a  way,  significant;  but  when 
cut  out  of  the  whole,  they  have  ceased  to  live. 
They  are  no  longer  vital,  or  truly  educational. 
For  this  reason  I  hold  that  while  there  is  and 
may  be  a  religious  training,  an  intellectual 
training,  a  physical  training,  there  is  no  such 
thing  as  religious  education,  or  intellectual 
education,  or  physical  education.  One  might 
as  well  imagine  a  triangular  or  a  circular  geom- 
etry. We  do  not  at  once  feel  the  force  of  this 
179 


180       RELIGIOUS  INSTRUCTION  AND 


Education 
part  of  the 
life-process 


statement,    because    of  our   loose,    inaccurate, 
and  inexact  use  of  the  word  education. 

In  m)^  view  education  is  part  of  the  life- 
process.  It  is  the  adaptation  of  a  person,  a 
self-conscious  being,  to  environment,  and  the 
development  of  capacity  in  a  person  to  modify 
or  control  that  environment.  The  adaptation 
of  a  person  to  his  environment  is  the  conserva- 
tive force  in  human  history.  It  is  the  basis  of 
continuity,  solidarity.  The  development  in  a 
person  of  capacity  to  modify  or  control  his  en- 
vironment gives  rise  to  progress,  change,  de- 
velopment. Education,  therefore,  makes  for 
progress  on  the  basis  of  the  present  acquisitions 
of  the  race.  Its  soundest  ideals  forbid,  as  a 
matter  of  course,  both  neglect  of  the  historic 
past  and  the  blind  worshipping  of  that  past 
as  an  idol.  The  importance  of  the  past  lies  in 
its  lessons  for  the  future.  When  the  past  has 
no  such  lessons,  we  forget  it  as  quickly  as  pos- 
sible. The  survival  of  a  tendency,  a  belief,  or 
an  institution  is  evidence  that  it  is  at  least 
worth  studying  and  that  it  must  be  reckoned 
with.  These  tendencies,  beliefs,  and  institu- 
tions are  studied  and  reckoned  with  for  the 
purpose  of  discovering  their  vital  principles 
and  of  putting  a  value  upon  them.  The  work- 
ing out  of  those  vital  principles  is  the  future. 


ITS  RELATION  TO  EDUCATION        181 

In  this  view,  education  is  first  and  chiefly  a 
matter  of  principles.  Then,  and  secondarily, 
it  is  a  matter  of  methods.  The  place,  character, 
and  function  of  religious  training  are  to  be 
settled,  and  only  to  be  settled,  by  reference  to 
fundamental  educational  principles. 

The  first  of  these  principles,  and  one  of  the  study  of  the 

r  ,  .  i-  ^    •       c  •  environment 

most  far-reaching,  is  discovered  in  traming  an 
answer  to  the  question:  What  is  the  present 
environment  of  a  human  being  ?  What  do  we 
mean  by  the  use  of  the  word  environment,  and 
what  do  we  include  in  it,  when  we  speak  of  it 
as  that  to  which  education  tends  to  adapt  a 
person  ?  We  mean,  I  think,  by  the  word  en- 
vironment, two  things:  First,  man's  physical 
surroundings,  and,  second,  that  vast  accretion 
of  knowledge  and  its  results  in  habit  and  in 
conduct,  which  we  call  civilization.  Natural 
forces  play  no  small  part  in  adapting  human 
beings  to  both  elements  of  environment,  but 
the  process  of  education  is  especially  potent 
as  regards  adaptation  to  the  second  element — 
civilization.  Civilization — man's  spiritual  en- 
vironment, all  his  surroundings  which  are  not 
directly  physical — this  it  is  which  has  to  be 
conquered,  in  its  elements  at  least,  before  one 
can  attain  a  true  education.  It  is  of  the  highest 
importance   that   we   make   sure   that   we   see 


182        RELIGIOUS  INSTRUCTION  AND 

clearly  all  the  elements  of  the  knowledge  which 
is  at  the  basis  of  civilization,  and  that  we  give 
each  element  its  proper  place  in  our  educa- 
tional scheme. 

We  may  approach  the  analysis  of  our  civili- 
zation, or  spiritual  environment,  from  many 
different  points  of  view,  and  perhaps  more 
than  one  classification  of  the  results  of  that 
analysis  may  be  helpful.  The  classification 
which  I  suggest,  and  which  I  have  stated  else- 
where in  detail,1  is  a  fivefold  one.  It  separates 
civilization  into  man's  science,  his  literature, 
his  art,  his  institutional  life,  and  his  religious 
beliefs.  Into  one  or  another  of  these  divisions 
may  be  put  each  of  the  results  of  human  aspira- 
tion and  of  human  achievement.  Education 
must  include  knowledge  of  each  of  the  five  ele- 
ments named,  as  well  as  insight  into  them  all 
and  sympathy  with  them  all.  To  omit  any 
one  of  them  is  to  cripple  education  and  to  make 
its  results  at  best  but  partial.  A  man  may  be 
highly  instructed  and  trained  in  science  alone, 
or  in  literature,  or  in  art,  or  in  human  institu- 
tions— man's  ethical  and  political  relation- 
ships— or  in  religion,  but  such  a  man  is  not 
highly  educated.  He  is  not  educated,  strictly 
speaking,  at  all,  for  one  or  more  of  the  aspects 
•  Cf.  pp.  24-38. 


ITS  RELATION  TO  EDUCATION        183 

of  civilization  are  shut  out  from  his  view,  or 
are  apprehended  imperfectly  only  and  with- 
out true  insight. 

If  this  analysis  is  correct,  and  I  think  it  is,  Religious 
then  religious  training  is  a  necessary  factor  in  ^^^lto 
education  and  must  be  given  the  time,  the  at-  education 
tention,  and  the  serious,  continued  treatment 
which  it  deserves.     That  religious  training  is 
not  at  the  present  time  given  a  place  by  the 
side  of  the  study  of  science,  literature,  art,  or 
of  human  institutions,  is  well  recognized.    How 
has  this  come  about  ?     How  are  the  integrity 
and  the  completeness  of  education  to  be  re- 
stored ? 

The    separation    of   religious    training    from  Forces 
education    as    a    whole    is    the    outgrowth    of  "J-Jj^J18 
Protestantism    and    of   democracy.      A    people  training  from 

,    .  r       •  i*    •  1  •    1  1  education 

united  in  professing  a  religion  which  is  ethnic 
or  racial,  or  a  nation  giving  adhesion  to  a  single 
creed  or  to  one  ecclesiastical  organization,  al- 
ways unite  religious  training  with  the  other 
elements  of  education  and  meet  no  embarrass- 
ment or  difficulty  in  so  doing.  During  the  un- 
disputed dominance  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church  in  Europe,  education  not  only  included 
religious  training  as  a  matter  of  course,  but  it 
was  almost  wholly  confined  to  religious  train- 
ing.    Theology  was  the  main   interest   of  the 


184       RELIGIOUS  INSTRUCTION  AND 

Middle  Ages,  and  the  theological  interest 
caused  religious  training  to  permeate  and  sub- 
ordinate whatever  instruction  was  given  in 
other  subjects.  Music  was  taught  that  the 
church  services  might  be  well  rendered.  Arith- 
metic and  astronomy  were  most  useful  in  fix- 
ing the  church  festivals  and  the  calendar.  With 
the  advent  of  the  Protestant  Reformation  all 
this  was  changed.  Religion  was  still  strenuously 
insisted  upon  as  a  subject  of  study,  but  the 
other  subjects  of  instruction  became  increas- 
ingly independent  of  it  and  were  gradually 
accorded  a  larger  share  of  time  and  attention 
for  themselves  alone. 

Protestantism,  however,  would  not  by  it- 
self have  brought  about  the  secularization  of 
the  school  as  it  exists  to-day  in  France  and  in 
the  United  States.  Democracy  and  the  con- 
viction that  the  support  and  control  of  educa- 
tion by  the  state  is  a  duty,  in  order  that 
the  state  and  its  citizens  may  be  safeguarded, 
have  necessarily  forced  the  secularization  of 
the  school.  Under  the  influence  of  the  Protes- 
tant Reformation  and  that  of  the  modern 
scientific  spirit,  men  broke  away  from  ad- 
herence to  a  single  creed  or  to  a  single  ecclesias- 
tical organization  and  formed  diverse  sects, 
groups,  parties,  or  churches,  difFering  in  many 


ITS  RELATION  TO  EDUCATION        185 

details  from  each  other — the  differences,  I 
regret  to  add,  being  far  more  weightily  em- 
phasized than  the  more  numerous  and  more 
important  points  of  agreement.  When  the 
state-supported  school  came  into  existence, 
this  state  of  religious  diversity  found  expres- 
sion in  dissatisfaction  with  the  teaching,  under 
state  auspices,  of  any  one  form  of  religious 
belief.  The  first  step  toward  the  removal  of 
this  dissatisfaction  was  to  reduce  religious 
teaching  to  the  lowest  possible  terms;  and 
these  were  found  in  the  reading  of  the  Bible, 
the  recitation  of  the  Lord's  Prayer,  and  the 
singing  of  a  devotional  hymn  at  the  opening  of 
the  daily  school  exercise.  But  even  this  gave 
rise  to  complaint.  Discussions  arose  as  to 
whether  a  single  version  of  the  Bible  must  be 
used  in  these  readings,  or  whether  any  version, 
chosen  by  the  reader,  might  be  read.  A  still 
more  extreme  view  insisted  that  the  Bible  it- 
self was  a  sectarian  book,  and  that  the  non- 
Christian  portion  of  the  community,  no  matter 
how  small  numerically,  were  subjected  to  "vio- 
lation of  their  liberties  and  their  rights,  when 
any  portion  of  the  public  funds  was  used  to 
present  Christian  doctrine  to  school  children, 
even  in  this  merely  incidental  way.  The  view 
that  the  state-supported  schools  must  refrain 


186       RELIGIOUS  INSTRUCTION  AND 

absolutely  from  exerting  any  religious  influence, 
however  small,  is  one  which  has  found  wide 
favor  among  the  American  people.  It  has 
led  to  more  or  less  sweeping  provisions  in  State 
constitutions  and  in  statutes  against  sectarian 
instruction  of  any  kind  at  public  expense.  A 
judicial  decision  on  this  subject  of  great  in- 
terest and  of  far-reaching  importance  is  that 
rendered  in  1890  by  the  Supreme  Court  of 
Wisconsin,  in  the  case  of  the  State  ex  rel. 
Weiss  and  others  vs.  the  District  Board  of 
School  District  No.  6  of  the  city  of  Edgerton.1 
In  this  case  the  essential  question  at  bar  was 
whether  or  not  the  reading  of  the  Bible,  in 
Is  the  Bible  King  James's  version,  in  the  public  schools  was 
a  sectarian       sectarian  instruction,   and   as  such   fell  within 

book?  ... 

the  scope  of  the  constitutional  and  statutory 
prohibitions  of  such  instruction.  In  an  elab- 
orate and  careful  opinion  the  court  held  that 
reading  from  the  Bible  in  the  schools,  although 
unaccompanied  by  any  comment  on  the  part 
of  the  teacher,  is  "instruction";  that  since  the 
Bible  contains  numerous  doctrinal  passages, 
upon  some  of  which  the  peculiar  creed  of  al- 
most every  religious  sect  is  based,  and  since 
such  passages  may  reasonably  be  understood 
to    inculcate    the    doctrines    predicated    upon 

1  Wisconsin  Supreme  Court  Reports  (1890),  76  :  177-221. 


ITS  RELATION  TO  EDUCATION        187 

them,  the  reading  of  the  Bible  is  also  "sec- 
tarian instruction";  that,  therefore,  the  use 
of  the  Bible  as  a  text-book  in  the  public  schools 
and  the  stated  reading  thereof  in  such  schools, 
without  restriction,  "has  a  tendency  to  incul- 
cate sectarian  ideas,"  and  falls  within  the  pro- 
hibition of  the  constitution  and  the  statutes 
of  Wisconsin. 

In  this  decision  there  are  some  very  in- 
teresting observations  on  the  general  question 
of  religious  training  and  the  place  of  the  Bible 
in  education.  The  court  says,  for  example: 
"The  priceless  truths  of  the  Bible  are  best 
taught  to  our  youth  in  the  church,  the  Sab- 
bath and  parochial  schools,  the  social  religious 
meetings,  and,  above  all,  in  the  home  circle. 
There  those  truths  may  be  explained  and  en- 
forced, the  spiritual  welfare  of  the  child  guarded 
and  protected,  and  his  spiritual  nature  directed 
and  cultivated,  in  accordance  with  the  dictates 
of  the  parental  conscience."  Judge  Orton,  in 
a  supplementary  opinion,  adds:  "[The  schools] 
are  called  by  those  who  wish  to  have  not  only 
religion,  but  their  own  religion,  taught  therein 
'Godless  schools.'  They  are  Godless,  and  the 
educational  department  of  the  government  is 
Godless,  in  the  same  sense  that  the  executive, 
legislative,  and  administrative  departments  are 


RELIGIOUS  INSTRUCTION  AND 


The  secular 
schools  of 
France 


Godless.  So  long  as  our  Constitution  remains 
as  it  is,  no  one's  religion  can  be  taught  in  our 
common  schools." 

The  Supreme  Court  of  Wisconsin  has  in 
this  decision  given  forcible,  definite  expres- 
sion to  the  view  held  by  the  large  majority  of 
American  citizens,  and  has  clothed  that  view 
with  the  authority  of  law.  It  is  in  this  sense 
and  for  substantially  the  reasons  adduced  in 
the  decision  which  I  have  quoted,  that  the 
American  public  school  is  secular  and  that  it 
can  give  and  does  give  attention  to  four  of 
the  five  elements  of  civilization  which  I  have 
named — science,  literature,  art,  and  institu- 
tional life — but  none  to  the  fifth  element — 
religion. 

In  France,  the  great  democratic  nation  of 
Europe,  the  case  is  quite  similar.  The  famous 
law  of  March  28,  1882,  excluded  religious  in- 
struction from  the  public  schools,  and  put 
moral  and  civic  training  in  its  stead.  M. 
Ribiere,  in  defending  this  provision  before  the 
senate,  used  almost  the  exact  language  later 
employed  by  the  Supreme  Court  of  Wisconsin. 
He  held  that  the  elementary  school,  main- 
tained by  the  state,  open  to  all,  could  not  be 
used  to  teach  the  doctrines  of  any  sect;  that 
it  must  be  neither  religious  nor  anti-religious, 


ITS  RELATION  TO  EDUCATION        189 

but  wholly  secular,  neutral.  M.  Paul  Bert, 
who  presented  the  measure  to  the  Chamber  of 
Deputies,  pointed  out  that  the  "religious  neu- 
trality" of  the  school  was  the  logical  outcome 
of  the  principle  of  the  freedom  of  the  individual 
conscience.  "In  our  eyes,"  M.  Bert  continued, 
"this  argument  has  so  great  force  that,  with- 
out the  prohibition  of  religious  instruction  in 
the  schools,  compulsory  education  would  appear 
to  us  to  be  not  an  advantage,  but  a  danger." 
In  order  that  opportunity  should  be  given  to 
parents  to  provide  religious  instruction  for 
their  children — this  is  explicitly  stated  in  the 
law — the  schools  are  closed  one  day  each  week, 
other  than  Sunday.  In  France  Thursday,  not 
Saturday,  as  with  us,  is  usually  taken  as  the 
school  holiday. 

This,  then,  is  the  condition  of  affairs  in  the  Limitations 
United  States  and  in  France  as  regards  relig-  °secJ&lized 
ious  training  in  education.     The  influence  first  school 
of  Protestantism   and  then  of  democracy  has 
completely  secularized  the  school.    The  school, 
therefore,  gives  an  incomplete  education.     The 
religious   aspect   of  civilization    and   the   place 
and  influence  of  religion  in  the  life  of  the  indi- 
vidual are  excluded  from  its  view.     This  is  the 
first  important  fact  to  be  reckoned  with. 

The  second  fact  is  that  the  whole  work  of 


190 


RELIGIOUS  INSTRUCTION  AND 


The  family 
and  the 
church  as 
educational 
agencies 


education  does  not  fall  upon  the  school.  It 
cannot  do  so  and  ought  not  to  do  so.  The 
family,  the  church,  the  library,  the  newspaper, 
society  itself,  are  all  educational  institutions 
as  truly  as  is  the  school.  The  school  is  the 
most  highly  organized  of  them  all.  Its  aims 
and  methods  are  the  most  definite.  But  it  is 
quite  untrue  to  suppose  that  nothing  enters 
into  education  save  through  the  medium  of 
the  school  programme.  Therefore,  it  does  not 
follow  that  because  the  school  has  become  secu- 
lar, all  religious  influence  and  training  have 
necessarily  gone  out  of  education.  If  the 
school  is  not  distinctly  religious,  it  is  even 
more  distinctly  not  anti-religious.  The  real 
question,  then,  is  what  are  the  other  educa- 
tional factors,  especially  the  family  and  the 
church,  doing  to  see  to  it  that  school  instruc- 
tion is  rounded  out  into  education  through 
their  co-operation  ?  It  is  the  duty  of  the  family 
and  the  church  to  take  up  their  share  of  the 
educational  burden,  particularly  the  specifically 
religious  training,  with  the  same  care,  the 
same  preparation,  and  the  same  zeal  which  the 
school  gives  to  the  instruction  which  falls  to 
its  lot. 

Before   coming  to   the   implications   of  this 
position,    there    are    one    or    two    suggestions 


ITS  RELATION  TO  EDUCATION        191 

which  must  receive  passing  notice.  It  is  said —  Religious 
by  a  very  few  it  is  true — that  there  is  no  such  ^veefr8al 
thing  as  religion  other  than  mere  superstition, 
and  that  religion  is  not  universal  in  any  event, 
and  therefore  that  the  fifth  element  of  our 
civilization  is  but  an  empty  name.  It  is  urged, 
with  Petronius,  that  fear  first  made  the  gods, 
and  with  Feuerbach  that  religion  is  man's  most 
terrible  ailment.  These  contentions  seem  to 
me  to  arise  from  simple  ignorance,  alike  of 
history  and  of  human  nature.  There  is  a  re- 
sponse from  the  human  heart  and  from  the 
recorded  thoughts  and  deeds  of  civilized  men, 
based  neither  on  credulity  nor  on  fear,  to  the 
description  of  Hegel,  that  "religion  is  for  our 
consciousness  that  region  in  which  all  the 
enigmas  of  the  world  are  solved,  all  the  con- 
tradictions of  deeper-reaching  thought  have 
their  meaning  unveiled,  and  where  the  voice 
of  the  heart's  pain  is  silenced — the  region  of 
eternal  truth,  of  eternal  rest,  of  eternal  peace." 
If  religion  may  be  defined,  in  Doctor  Martin- 
eau's  words,  as  "the  belief  and  worship  of 
Supreme  Mind  and  Will,  directing  the  uni- 
verse and  holding  moral  relations  with  human 
life,"  then  civilization  is  unintelligible  without 
it.  Much  of  the  world's  literature  and  art, 
and  the  loftiest  achievements  of  men,  are,  with 


192       RELIGIOUS  INSTRUCTION  AND 

the  religious  element  withdrawn,  and  without 
the  motive  of  religion  to  explain  them,  as 
barren  as  the  desert  of  Sahara.  This  prop- 
osition hardly  needs  argument.  "The  re- 
ligiosity of  man  is  a  part  of  his  psychical 
being.  In  the  nature  and  laws  of  the  human 
mind,  in  its  intellect,  sympathies,  emotions, 
and  passions,  lie  the  well-springs  of  all  re- 
ligions, modern  or  ancient,  Christian  or  hea- 
then. To  these  we  must  refer,  by  these 
we  must  explain,  whatever  errors,  falsehood, 
bigotry,  or  cruelty  have  stained  man's  creeds 
or  cults;  to  them  we  must  credit  whatever 
truth,  beauty,  piety,  and  love  have  glorified 
and  hallowed  his  long  search  for  the  perfect 
and  the  eternal.  .  .  . 

"The  fact  is  that  there  has  not  been  a  single 
tribe,  no  matter  how  rude,  known  in  history 
or  visited  by  travellers,  which  has  been  shown 
to  be  destitute  of  religion  under  some  form."1 
Moral  and  But  it  is  also  urged  that  a  satisfactory  sub- 

stitute for  religious  training  is  to  be  found  in 

instruction  °  to 

no  substitute    moral    and    civic    instruction.      This    view    is 

teaching0"6     widely  held   in   France   and  has  led  to  some 

rather   absurd   consequences.      So   scholarly   a 

writer  as  Mr.  Thomas  Davidson  has  just  now 

1  Brinton,   Religions  of  Primitive  Peoples  (New  York,    1897), 
p.  30. 


ITS  RELATION  TO  EDUCATION        193 

urged  this  view  upon  us  Americans.1  He  is 
able  to  do  so,  however,  only  by  completely 
identifying  religion  and  philosophy — and  (as 
I  think)  a  bad  philosophy  at  that — in  his 
definition  of  religion.  But,  in  fact,  the  field  of 
moral  and  civic  instruction  is  quite  distinct 
from  man's  religious  life;  it  belongs  to  the 
institutional  aspect  of  civilization.  The  moral 
aspect  of  life  has  long  since  come  to  be  closely 
related  to  the  religious  aspect,  but  nevertheless 
the  two  are  quite  different.  A  religion,  in- 
deed, may  be  quite  immoral  in  its  influences 
and  tendencies.  It  may  lead  to  cruelty  and 
sensuality,  and  yet  be  a  religion.  There  have 
been  not  a  few  such.  To  confuse  religion  with 
ethics  is  to  obscure  both.  Religion  must  be 
apprehended  as  something  distinct  and  peculiar 
if  it  is  to  be  apprehended  at  all.  Matthew 
Arnold  was  absolutely  wrong  when  he  wrote: 
"Religion  is  ethics  heightened,  enkindled,  lit 
up  by  feeling;  the  passage  from  morality  to 
religion  is  made  when  to  morality  is  applied 
emotion."  It  is  still  easier  to  make  clear  and 
enforce  the  distinction  between  morality  and 
religion,  if  we  substitute  for  the  general  term 
religion  the  highest  type  of  all  religions,  Chris- 

1  "American  Democracy  as  a  Religion,"  International  Journal 
of  Ethics,  October,  1899. 


194       RELIGIOUS  INSTRUCTION  AND 


Opportunity 
of  the 
Sunday- 
school 


tianity.     It  is   Christianity,   of  course,   which 
we  have  in  mind  when  speaking  of  religion. 

My  argument  thus  far  has  aimed  to  make 
it  clear  that  religious  training  is  an  integral 
part  of  education,  that  in  this  country  the 
State  school  does  not  and  cannot  include 
religious  training  in  its  programme,  that  it 
must  therefore  be  provided  hy  other  agencies 
and  on  as  high  a  plane  of  efficiency  as  is  reached 
by  instruction  in  other  subjects,  and  that 
moral  and  civic  training  is  no  possible  substitute 
for  religious  teaching.  The  agencies  at  hand 
for  religious  teaching  are  the  family  and  the 
church,  and,  in  particular,  the  special  school, 
the  Sunday-school,  maintained  by  the  church 
for  the  purposes  of  religious  training. 

The  Sunday-school  is  in  this  way  brought 
into  a  position  of  great  responsibility  and  im- 
portance, for  it  is,  in  fact,  a  necessary  part  of 
the  whole  educational  machinery  of  our  time. 
It  must,  therefore,  be  made  fully  conscious  of 
the  principles  on  which  its  work  rests  and  of 
the  methods  best  suited  to  the  attainment  of 
its  ends. 

The  Sunday-school  must,  first  of  all,  under- 
stand fully  the  organization,  aims,  and  methods 
of  the  public  schools;  for  it  is  their  ally.  It 
must  take  into  consideration  the  progress  of 


ITS  RELATION  TO  EDUCATION        195 

the  instruction  there  given  in  secular  subjects, 
and  must  correlate  its  own  religious  instruction 
with  this.  It  must  study  the  facts  of  child 
life  and  development,  and  it  must  base  its 
methods  upon  the  actual  needs  and  capacities 
of  childhood.  It  must  organize  its  work  econom- 
ically and  scientifically,  and  it  must  demand  of 
its  teachers  special  and  continuous  prepara- 
tion for  their  work.  It  must  realize  that  it  is 
first  and  above  all  an  educational  institution 
and  not  a  proselytizing  one,  and  that  the  in- 
herent force  of  the  truth  which  it  teaches  is 
far  greater  than  any  attempted  bending  of 
that  truth  to  special  ends.  It  must  cease  to 
be  merely  a  part  of  the  missionary  work  of 
the  parish,  and  become  a  real  factor  in  the 
educational  work  of  the  community.  It  must 
give  more  time  to  its  work,  and  the  traditional 
division  of  time  on  Sunday  will  have  to  be 
gradually  readjusted  in  order  to  make  a  serious 
Sunday-school  session  possible.  A  Saturday 
session  may  also  be  planned  for.  It  must 
recognize  that  ordinarily  no  single  parish  or 
congregation  can  make  proper  provision  for 
the  religious  training  of  all  the  young  people 
under  its  care.  The  very  largest  parishes  and 
congregations  may  be  able  to  maintain  a  fully 
equipped  Sunday-school  for  children  from  five 


196       RELIGIOUS  INSTRUCTION  AND 

to  eighteen,  but  the  smaller  parishes  and  con- 
gregations in  towns  and  cities  must  learn  to 
combine  for  their  common  good.  Each  parish 
or  congregation  may  readily  and  ought  always 
to  maintain  a  Sunday-school  of  elementary 
grade,  but  several  adjoining  parishes  or  con- 
gregations must  combine  in  order  to  organize 
and  support  a  proper  course  of  religious  in- 
struction for  children  of  secondary-school  age 
and  beyond,  say  from  thirteen  to  eighteen 
years.  In  a  whole  city,  unless  it  be  New  York 
or  Chicago  or  Philadelphia,  one,  or  at  most 
two,  training-classes  for  Sunday-school  teachers 
should  be  sufficient.  Furthermore,  Sunday- 
school  teachers,  like  all  other  teachers,  should 
be  paid.  They  should  be  selected  because  of 
competence  and  special  training;  they  should 
be  led  to  look  upon  their  work  not  as  philan- 
thropy, not  even  as  missionary  work,  but  as 
something  which  is  larger  than  either  because 
it  includes  both,  namely  education.  The  several 
Christian  bodies,  as  long  as  they  remain  distinct, 
will  naturally  maintain  their  own  separate 
Sunday-school  systems;  but  within  any  given 
branch  of  the  Christian  church,  be  it  Protestant 
Episcopal,  Presbyterian,  Methodist,  or  other, 
all  of  the  principles  just  stated  can  be  applied. 
Sunday-schools    so   organized   could   be   given 


ITS  RELATION  TO  EDUCATION        197 

the  same  systematic  professional  supervision 
that  is  provided  for  the  secular  schools.  Each 
body  of  Christians  in  a  given  community  could 
have  its  own  Sunday-school  board  and  its  own 
Sunday-school  superintendent  and  staff  of  as- 
sistants. Between  some  Christian  bodies  actual 
co-operation  in  Sunday-school  instruction  ought 
to  be  possible.  For  the  proper  organization 
and  conduct  of  this  religious  instruction  there 
must  be  a  parish  or  congregational  appropria- 
tion, or,  better  far,  an  endowment  fund,  to 
bear  the  legitimate  cost  of  religious  teaching 
and  its  systematic  professional  supervision. 

The  Sunday-school  course  of  study  must  be 
looked  after.  It  is  at  present — I  say  it  with 
all  respect — too  exclusively  pious.  Religion 
is  much  more  important  in  civilization  and  in 
life  than  the  Sunday-school  now  teaches.  It 
is  more  real.  It  touches  other  interests  at 
more  points.  The  course  of  study  of  the  future 
must  reveal  these  facts  and  illustrate  them. 
It  must  be  carefully  graded  and  adjusted  to 
the  capacity  of  the  child.  It  must  reach  out 
beyond  the  Bible  and  the  catechism.  It  must 
make  use  of  biography,  of  history,  of  geog- 
raphy, of  literature  and  of  art,  to  give  both 
breadth  and  depth  and  vitality  to  the  truths 
it  teaches  and  enforces.     It  must  comprehend 


198        RELIGIOUS  INSTRUCTION  AND 

and  reveal  the  fact  that  the  spiritual  life  is  not 
apart  from  the  natural  life  and  in  antagonism 
to  it,  but  that  the  spirit  interpenetrates  all 
life,  and  that  all  life  is  of  the  spirit.  The  prob- 
lem, then,  is  not  religion  and  education,  but 
religion  in  education. 

This,  it  may  be  said,  is  a  radical  programme, 
a  counsel  of  perfection.  Perhaps  so.  If  so,  it 
will  provide  something  to  work  toward.  It 
will  at  least  bring  religious  teaching  under  the 
influence  of  those  principles  and  methods  which 
have  of  late  years  so  vitalized  all  secular  teach- 
ing. It  will  give  to  it  modern  instruments, 
text-books,  and  illustrative  material. 

Before  dismissing  these  suggestions  as  im- 
practicable, because  in  part  unfamiliar,  it  is 
well  to  face  the  alternative.  It  is  that  religious 
knowledge,  and  with  religious  knowledge  a 
good  deal  else  which  is  worth  saving,  will  go 
out  of  the  life  of  the  next  generation.  What 
appears  important  enough  to  the  elder  gener- 
ation to  be  systematically  organized,  con- 
scientiously studied,  and  paid  for  in  a  terres- 
trial circulating  medium,  will  deeply  impress 
itself  upon  the  younger.  What  is  put  off"  with 
a  hurried  and  unsystematic  hour  on  Sunday 
will  not  long  seem  very  much  worth  while. 

Already  the  effects  of  the  present  policy  are 


ITS  RELATION  TO  EDUCATION        199 

being  seen.  To  the  average  college  student  the  Effects  of 
first  book  of  Milton's  Paradise  Lost  is  an  enigma.  ^°™cee  of 
The  epithets,  the  allusions,  even  many  of  the 
proper  names,  are  unfamiliar.  This  is  due  to 
ignorance  of  the  Bible.  It  is  necessary  nowa- 
days to  know  something  about  Christianity 
as  well  as  to  be  a  Christian.  The  study  of  his- 
tory and  of  geography  in  connection  with  the 
spread  and  development  of  Christianity  is 
fascinating.  The  study  of  biography  in  con- 
nection with  the  people  of  Israel  and  Old  Tes- 
tament history  generally  may  be  made  to  put 
plenty  of  life  into  much  that  is  now  dead  facts 
to  be  memorized.  For  older  pupils  the  study 
of  church  history,  and  of  the  part  played  by 
religious  beliefs  and  religious  differences  in  the 
history  of  European  dynasties,  politics,  and  lit- 
erature will  make  it  plain  how  moving  a  force 
religion  is  and  has  been  in  the  development 
of  civilization.  Such  pupils,  too,  are  able  to 
appreciate  the  Bible  as  literature  if  it  be  put 
before  them  from  that  point  of  view.  It  is  too 
often  treated  as  a  treasury  of  texts  only,  and 
not  as  living  literature  which  stands,  as  litera- 
ture, by  the  side  of  the  world's  greatest  achieve- 
ments in  poetry  and  in  prose. 

The  heart  is  the  ultimate  aim  of  all  religious 
appeals.     But  the  heart  is  most  easily  reached 


200  RELIGIOUS  INSTRUCTION 

The  appeal  to   by  informing  the  intellect   and  by  fashioning 
the  human       ^        jjj       Knowledge   and   conduct    react   on 

heart  _  & 

the  feelings,  and  the  feelings,  the  heart  (so  to 
speak),  are  educated  and  refined  through  them. 
This  fact  will  never  be  lost  sight  of  by  any  com- 
petent religious  teacher,  and  his  purpose  will 
never  be  to  amass  in  his  pupils  knowledge  about 
religion  alone,  but  to  use  such  knowledge  to 
direct,  elevate,  and  refine  the  religious  feelings 
and  to  guide  and  form  conduct  into  character. 
It  is  along  such  lines  as  these  that  the  de- 
velopment of  the  Sunday-school,  from  a  phase 
of  parish  mission  work  into  an  educational  in- 
stitution of  co-ordinate  rank  with  the  secular- 
ized school,  must  take  place.  There  are  numer- 
ous local  problems  to  be  solved,  no  doubt,  and 
not  a  few  practical  difficulties  to  be  overcome, 
but  if  the  ideal  be  once  firmly  grasped  and  the 
purpose  to  reach  it  be  formed,  the  result  can- 
not be  doubtful. 


XI 


THE  SCOPE  AND  FUNCTION  OF  SEC- 
ONDARY EDUCATION 


An  address  before  the  University  High  School  Conference 
at  Champaign,  Illinois,  May  19,  1898 


THE  SCOPE  AND  FUNCTION  OF  SEC- 
ONDARY EDUCATION 

The  past  decade  has  witnessed  marked  ac- 
tivity in  matters  pertaining  to  secondary  educa- 
tion; that  most  ancient  division  of  the  educa- 
tional system  has  been  subjected  to  close  study 
and  to  vigorous  discussion.  Passing  by  other 
and  equally  significant  evidences  of  this — 
particularly  in  the  Scandinavian  countries — 
I  cite  simply  the  three  elaborate  reports  made 
in  Germany  in  1890  by  the  Berlin  School  Con- 
ference, in  the  United  States  in  1894  by  the 
Committee  of  Ten  appointed  by  the  National 
Educational  Association,  and  in  England  in 
1895  by  the  Royal  Commission  on  Secondary 
Education.  In  a  sense  these  three  documents 
are  epoch-making;  they  are  in  part  a  cause 
and  in  part  an  effect  of  the  wide-spread  opinion 
that  secondary  education  is  in  need  of  reforma- 
tion and  reorganization. 

Fortunately,  secondary  education  no  longer 

needs    defense.      Occasionally    a    lonely    voice 

echoes  the  charge  of  Jack  Cade — "Thou  hast 

most  traitorously  corrupted  the  youth  of  the 

203 


204 


THE  SCOPE  AND  FUNCTION 


realm  in  erecting  a  grammar  school.  .  .  . 
Thou  hast  men  about  thee  that  usually  talk  of 
a  noun  or  a  verb,  and  such  abominable  words 
as  no  Christian  ear  can  endure  to  hear";  or, 
at  intervals,  perhaps  some  cultivated  cynic 
snarls  after  the  fashion  of  the  Tory  governor 
of  the  colony  of  Virginia,  who  wrote  home  to 
England,  "I  thank  God  there  are  no  free 
schools  or  printing,  and  I  hope  we  shall  not 
have  them  these  hundred  years":  but  these 
are  only  the' humors  of  progress. 

At  the  close  of  the  academic  year  1895-6, 
it  was  estimated  by  the  commissioner  of  educa- 
tion that  600,000  pupils  were  receiving  secon- 
dary instruction  in  the  United  States.  Nearly 
two-thirds  of  these  were  enrolled  in  the  5,000 
public  high  schools.  Considerably  more  than 
one-half  of  the  total  number  of  pupils  were 
girls.  The  number  of  secondary  students  to 
each  1,000  of  population  was  7.92.  Every  State 
and  Territory  now  has  public  high  schools, 
ranging  from  the  558  in  Ohio,  through  343  in 
New  York,  329  in  Iowa,  319  in  Illinois,  219  in 
Massachusetts,  and  166  in  Texas  to  the  2  in 
Utah.  It  is  obvious,  therefore,  that  every  sec- 
tion of  the  country  and  all  classes  of  people  are 
vitally  interested  in  the  efficiency  and  adequacy 
of  secondary  training.     There  is  still  another 


OF  SECONDARY  EDUCATION  205 

fact  of  great  importance  to  be  referred  to  in 
this  connection.  During  the  last  few  years  the 
development  in  this  country  of  secondary  educa- 
tion at  the  public  expense  has  been  little  short 
of  marvellous.  From  1890-6,  while  the  number 
of  students  in  private  secondary  schools  in- 
creased 12  per  cent,  or  from  95,000  to  107,000, 
the  number  of  students  in  public  secondary 
schools  increased  87  per  cent,  or  from  203,000 
to  380,000.  Nor  is  this  all:  since  1893-4  the 
number  of  students  in  private  secondary  schools 
has  been  steadily  decreasing.  These  facts  are 
an  eloquent  witness  to  the  growth  of  the  spirit 
of  democracy  in  education  and  they  are  a  con- 
clusive answer  to  those  curiously  inept  critics 
who  insist  that  it  is  un-American  to  provide 
other  than  elementary  education  at  public 
expense. 

Such  being,  in  general,  the  present  status  of 
what  we  know  as  secondary  education,  I  wish 
to  discuss  first  its  scope  or  limits,  and  second 
its  function  or  purposes. 

What  is  secondary  education  ?     The  defini-  What  is 
tion  makers  gravely  walk  about  in  a  circle  when  ^u°cation? 
they  define  secondary  as  that  which  succeeds 
elementary    and    precedes    higher    education, 
higher  education   as  that  which   succeeds  sec- 
ondary  education,    and   elementary   education 


206  THE  SCOPE  AND  FUNCTION 

as  that  which  precedes  it.  One  is  reminded  by 
this  process  of  the  Indian  referred  to  by  Locke 
who,  saying  that  the  world  was  supported  by 
a  great  elephant,  was  asked  what  the  elephant 
rested  on;  to  which  his  answer  was — a  great 
tortoise.  But  being  again  pressed  to  know 
what  gave  support  to  the  broad-backed  tortoise, 
replied,  something  he  knew  not  what.  Evi- 
dently we  need  a  basis  more  substantial  than 
anything  that  the  Indian  or  the  definition 
makers  have  to  offer.  My  own  preference  is 
to  look  for  the  base-line  from  which  to  measure 
and  lay  out  the  educational  course,  in  the  na- 
ture of  the  child-mind  and  in  the  character  of 
the  studies  pursued,  rather  than  in  any  merely 
formal  and  external  scheme  of  administrative 
classification.  The  Royal  Commission  on  Sec- 
ondary Education,  after  a  long  and  exceptionally 
intelligent  discussion  of  this  question,  conclude 
that  secondary  education  is  "the  education  of 
the  boy  or  girl  not  simply  as  a  human  being 
who  needs  to  be  instructed  in  the  mere  rudi- 
ments of  knowledge,  but  it  is  a  process  of  in- 
tellectual training  and  personal  discipline  con- 
ducted with  special  regard  to  the  profession  or 
trade  to  be  followed."1  In  other  words,  ele- 
mentary  or    general    education    is,    in    Plato's 

1  Report  (London,  1895),  I  :  136. 


OF  SECONDARY  EDUCATION  207 

phrase,  eV}  watSeta,  for  culture,  while  secondary 
or  more  special  training  is  e7ri  rexvV>  f°r  an  art 
or  trade.  To  reach  this  conclusion  the  learned 
commission  have  been  obliged  to  give  to  the 
word  art  or  trade  a  very  unusual  scope.  It  is 
held  to  include  the  interpretation  of  a  literature 
or  a  science,  the  making  of  a  picture  or  a  book, 
the  practise  of  a  plastic  or  a  manual  art,  the 
convincing  of  a  jury  or  the  persuading  of  a 
senate,  the  translating  or  the  annotating  of  an 
author,  the  dyeing  of  wool,  the  weaving  of 
cloth,  the  designing  or  the  constructing  of  a 
machine,  the  navigating  of  a  ship  or  the  com- 
manding of  an  army.1  I  am  able  to  see  in  this 
definition  and  description  only  an  elaborate 
begging  of  the  question. 

The  very  name  secondary  implies  that  it  has 
reference  to  a  primary  or  elementary  educa- 
tion that  comes  before  it.  This  elementary 
education  I  define  as  that  general  training  in 
the  elements  of  knowledge  that  is  suitable  for 
a  pupil  from  the  age  of  six  or  seven  to  the  period 
of  adolescence.  It  is  ordinarily  organized  in 
eight  or  nine  grades,  each  occupying  an  academic 
year.  Nine  grades  are  too  many  and  are  dis- 
tinctly wasteful.  To  spend  so  much  time  on 
these    simple    studies    leads    to    that    arrested 

1  Report  (London,  1895),  I  :  136. 


208 


TEE  SCOPE  AND  FUNCTION 


The 

secondary- 
school 
programme 
of  study 


development  which  is  so  often  the  bane  of  the 
elementary-school  period.  I  have  never  known 
a  child  who  needed  more  than  six  years'  time 
in  which  to  complete  the  elementary  course, 
and  I  have  known  but  few  who  have,  as  an 
actual  fact,  ever  taken  longer  than  that.  An 
eight-year  course  is  certainly  ample  for  any 
community,  and  children  should  be  given  every 
encouragement  and  every  opportunity  to  cover 
the  elementary  studies  in  even  less  time. 

The  plan  of  studies  in  the  elementary  school 
is  pretty  much  the  same  the  world  over.  It  is 
most  clearly  and  concisely  stated  in  the  French 
decree  of  January  18,  1887,  which  defines  ele- 
mentary education  as  made  up  of  the  elements 
of  morals  and  of  civics;  reading  and  writing; 
the  study  of  the  French  language;  arithmetic, 
including  the  metric  system;  history  and  geog- 
raphy, particularly  those  of  France;  object- 
lessons  and  the  elements  of  science;  the  ele- 
ments of  drawing,  singing,  and  manual  training; 
gymnastics  and  military  exercises.  In  the 
nature  of  the  case  all  this  instruction  will  deal 
with  elementary  and  simple  notions  only,  and, 
psychologically  speaking,  it  will  lay  much  em- 
phasis upon  sense-perception  and  the  imita- 
tive instinct.  The  nature  of  the  child-mind 
requires  that.     Yet  it  is  the  gravest  of  errors 


OF  SECONDARY  EDUCATION  209 

in  early  teaching  to  suppose  that  sense-percep- 
tion is  itself  incapable  of  analysis  and  that  no 
thought-process  is  involved  in  it.  Kant  long 
ago  said  that  all  knowledge  is  judgment,  and 
Doctor  Harris  has  clearly  shown  the  nature  of 
the  judgment  that  is  implied  in  the  activities 
of  sense.1 

It  must  not  be  supposed,  therefore,  that  be- 
tween the  mental  activities  of  the  child  in  the 
elementary  school  and  those  of  his  fellow  in 
the  secondary  school  there  is  a  great  gulf  fixed. 
Quite  the  contrary:  the  two  sets  of  activities 
are  alike  in  kind,  and  differ  only  in  quality  and 
in  the  explicitness  of  the  processes  involved. 
What  is  hidden  beneath  the  surface  in  the 
mind  of  the  child  from  six  to  twelve  comes 
more  and  more  fully  into  consciousness  in  the 
child  from  twelve  to  sixteen.  There  will,  there- 
fore, be  an  easy  and  gradual  progression  from 
the  earlier  stage  to  the  later  one,  and  it  is  a 
hopeless  and  unjustifiable  undertaking  to  at- 
tempt, as  is  sometimes  done,  to  draw  a  hard- 
and-fast  line  between  them. 

The  marked  characteristics  of  the  pupil  of  Character- 
second  ary-school  age  are  due  to  the  fact  that,  "d^s°cence 
as  Rousseau  puts  it,  we  are  born  twice;    the 
first  time  into  existence,  the  second  time  into 

1  Psychologic  Foundations  of  Education  (New  York,  1898), 
chaps.  IX,  X. 


210  THE  SCOPE  AND  FUNCTION 

life;  the  first  time  as  a  member  of  the  race,  the 
second  time  as  a  member  of  the  sex — in  other 
words,  they  are  due  to  the  phenomena  of  ado- 
lescence. The  physical  and  mental  effects  of 
this  epoch  in  human  life  begin  earlier  and  last 
longer  than  is  sometimes  supposed.  They 
dominate  the  entire  secondary-school  period. 
Rapid  growth  and  increase  of  nervous  and 
mental  energy  mark  these  years.  Emotions, 
vague  and  disordered,  displace  the  placidity 
of  earlier  life.  Ambitions,  yearnings,  desires 
are  formulated  crudely  and  for  the  first  time. 
Introspection  begins  and  a  morbid  self-con- 
sciousness is  not  infrequent.  The  future, 
hitherto  almost  unthought  of,  becomes  of  great 
interest  and  importance,  and  overshadows  the 
present.  Abnormally  intense  religious  expe- 
riences and  reflections  are  common.  The  old 
and  familiar  tasks,  occupations,  and  games  no 
longer  suffice;  the  soul  seems  to  overflow,  as  it 
were,  and  demands  new  and  more  difficult 
problems  to  occupy  it  and  to  absorb  its  activi- 
ties. The  higher  thought-processes,  until  now 
latent,  exhibit  themselves  in  a  variety  of  ways, 
and  more  formal  and  elaborate  chains  of  in- 
ference supersede  the  reasoning  from  one 
particular  instance  to  another  that  is  so  char- 
acteristic of  the  little  child. 


OF  SECONDARY  EDUCATION  211 

These  facts  point  directly  to  the  essential  Character- 
characteristics  of  secondary-school  studies,  ^^ary- 
They  must,  in  the  first  place,  be  comparative  school 
and  reflective  in  character  in  order  to  provide 
food  for  the  newly  discovered  intellectual 
capacities;  in  the  second  place,  they  must  be 
and  continue  to  become  more  and  more  difficult, 
in  order  to  occupy  and  develop  the  augmented 
nervous  and  mental  energy  that  now  presents 
itself;  and  in  the  third  place,  the  tendency  to 
introspection  and  analysis  must  be  satisfied  by 
the  disclosing  of  the  inner  connections  and 
deeper  reasons  of  the  subjects  taught.  When 
these  three  conditions  are  fulfilled  then,  and 
only  then,  is  secondary  education  being  carried 
on  upon  a  proper  and  a  scientific  basis.  No 
amount  of  rearranging  or  reviewing  elementary 
studies  will  make  a  secondary-school  course. 
The  characteristics  to  which  I  have  just  re- 
ferred must  be  present  in  order  that  a  secondary- 
school  course  may  be  worthy  of  the  name. 

A  foreign  language,  ancient  or  modern,  no 
matter  at  what  age  it  is  begun,  is  a  secondary 
study  because  it  invites  and  compels  compari- 
son with  the  mother  tongue  and  a  more  or 
less  reflective  analysis  of  the  two  vocabularies 
and  the  two  sets  of  grammatical  and  syntactical 
forms.     Algebra  is  a  secondary  study  because 


212 


THE  SCOPE  AND  FUNCTION 


Passage  from 
elementary 
to  secondary 
instruction 


of  the  symbolic  and  general  character  of  its 
operations,  and  the  rapidly  increasing  dif- 
ficulty of  its  processes.  Formal  grammar  is  a 
secondary  study  because  of  its  dependence  on 
the  laws  of  logical  thought  and  because  of  its 
abstract  and  analytic  character.  History, 
geography,  and  natural  science  tend  to  pass 
rapidly  into  the  secondary  form,  no  matter  how 
simply  and  objectively  they  may  be  begun. 

From  this  it  will  be  apparent  that  it  is  my 
opinion  that  secondary  studies  make  their  ap- 
pearance, and  ought  to  make  their  appearance, 
in  the  upper  grades  of  the  elementary  schools. 
The  law  of  educational  continuity  demands 
this,  and  there  is  no  other  way  to  escape  from 
the  dreaded  arrested  development  which  falls 
like  a  pall  upon  so  many  of  our  school  children. 
As  power  is  gained  only  by  exercise,  school- 
masters are  beginning  to  find  out  that  the 
quickest  and  surest  way  to  lead  pupils  to  the 
mastery  of  a  given  task  is,  after  trying  it  a  few 
times,  not  to  review  it  indefinitely  but  to  go 
forward  to  something  more  difficult.  Good 
teaching  will  always  keep  a  pupil's  mind  taut; 
to  let  it  grow  slack  increases  the  friction  and 
the  waste. 

Just  as  secondary  studies  take  their  rise 
almost  unnoticed   among  and  out  of  the  ele- 


OF  SECONDARY  EDUCATION  213 

mentary  studies,  so  they  pass  insensibly  into 
those  of  college  grade.  The  college  point  of 
view  is  more  elevated,  its  scope  broader,  its 
methods  still  more  reflective  and  abstract  than 
those  of  the  secondary  school;  but  no  one  can 
say  dogmatically  just  where  the  one  ends  and 
the  other  begins.  Custom  and  convenience 
play  a  large  part  in  these  matters.  The  order 
of  studies  is  arranged  with  reference  to  many 
different  considerations.  The  elements  of  Ar- 
abic and  of  Sanskrit  are  perhaps  easier  than 
the  elements  of  Greek;  yet  no  one  would  pro- 
pose to  begin  either  Arabic  or  Sanskrit  in  the 
secondary  school.  Their  historical  relation  to 
our  civilization,  the  character  of  their  content, 
and  their  relative  importance  all  cause  the 
postponement  of  the  study  of  these  languages 
to  the  college  or  to  the  university.  It  is 
apparent  that  not  the  relative  difficulty  of 
studies,  but  their  relations  to  each  other,  to 
the  developing  powers  of  the  pupil,  and  to 
contemporary  civilization  determine  their  order 
during  the  secondary  and  college  periods. 

The  secondary-school  period,  then,  is  es- 
sentially the  period  of  adolescence,  of  what 
may  be  called  active  adolescence  as  distin- 
guished from  the  later  and  less  violent  mani- 
festations of  physical  and  mental  change  that 


214 


TEE  SCOPE  AND  FUNCTION 


Disciplinary 
and  selective 
functions  of 
secondary 
instruction 


are  now  usually  included  under  the  term.  The 
normal  years  are,  with  us,  from  twelve  to  six- 
teen, or  from  thirteen  to  seventeen.  The  normal 
boy  or  girl  who  is  going  to  college  ought  to 
enter  at  seventeen,  at  the  latest.  A  limitation 
of  the  secondary-school  course  to  four  years 
has  been  brought  about  chiefly  by  social  and 
economic  causes,  but  it  can  also  be  justified  in 
a  measure  on  physiological  and  on  psychological 
grounds. 

The  scope  of  secondary  education  includes 
the  four  years  that  I  term  those  of  active  ado- 
lescence, from  twelve  or  thirteen  to  sixteen  or 
seventeen.  Secondary-school  studies  must  have 
the  characteristics  that  I  have  enumerated, 
and  for  the  reasons  that  I  have  stated.  They 
are  not  sharply  separated  from  elementary 
studies  on  the  one  hand  or  from  college  studies 
on  the  other.  They  grow  easily  and  naturally 
out  of  the  former  and  pass  easily  and  gradually 
into  the  latter. 

The  functions  of  secondary  education  de- 
pend largely  upon  our  conception  of  its  scope 
and  upon  conditions  incidental  thereto.  These 
functions  I  class  under  two  heads:  (i)  disci- 
plinary, (2)  selective.  The  scientifically  ad- 
justed secondary-school  course  should  be  made 
up  of  secondary  studies  arranged  with  reference 


OF  SECONDARY  EDUCATION  215 

to  these  two  ends  of  discipline  and  selection, 
and  with  reference  to  these  two  ends  alone. 
The  secondary  school,  to  succeed  in  its  self- 
imposed  task,  must  be,  to  borrow  some  technical 
terms  from  Kant,  autonomous  and  not  heter- 
onomous.  It  cannot  give  its  pupils  the  best 
possible  secondary  education,  and  at  the  same 
time  have  its  efficiency  judged  by  its  ability 
to  fit  some  or  all  of  its  graduates  to  pass  the 
tests  prescribed  in  a  thousand  forms  for  col- 
lege entrance.  My  mind  is  perfectly  clear  that 
the  relationship  usually  existing  hitherto  be- 
tween secondary  school  and  college  must  be 
reversed;  instead  of  the  secondary-school  pro- 
gramme having  to  conform  to  college-entrance 
requirements,  college- entrance  requirements 
must  be  brought  into  harmony  with  secondary- 
school  programmes.  Only  an  insignificant 
percentage  of  secondary-school  pupils  go  for- 
ward to  a  higher  institution  of  learning.  It  is 
important  for  our  civilization  and  for  our  cul- 
ture that  this  percentage  should  be  largely  in- 
creased. In  order  to  accomplish  this,  and  at 
the  same  time  to  strengthen  the  position  of 
secondary  education  "it  is  necessary" — I  quote 
the  authoritative  words  of  the  Committee  of 
Ten — "that  the  colleges  and  scientific  schools 
of  the  country  should  accept  for  admission  to 


2l6 


THE  SCOPE  AND  FUNCTION 


Passage  from 
secondary 
school  to 
college 


appropriate  courses  of  their  instruction  the 
attainments  of  any  youth  who  has  passed 
creditably  through  a  good  secondary-school 
course,  no  matter  to  what  group  of  subjects 
he  may  have  mainly  devoted  himself  in  the 
secondary  school."1 

This  position  is  so  reasonable,  and  so  ob- 
viously in  the  interest  both  of  the  college  and 
of  the  secondary  school,  that  it  is  a  legitimate 
cause  for  surprise  that  it  was  not  taken  long 
ago  by  all  colleges  and  scientific  schools.  That 
this  has  not  happened  is  due  in  part  to  the 
lack  of  educational  statesmanship  on  the  part 
of  those  concerned  with  the  formulation  of 
college  policy,  and  in  part  to  the  distressingly 
bad  organization  of  much  secondary-school 
work.  In  many  parts  of  the  country  secondary- 
school  work  has  been  so  poor,  so  scattering,  and 
so  lacking  in  purpose,  that  colleges  have  been 
unable  to  accept  it  as  an  adequate  preparation 
for  higher  studies,  even  when  they  were  so 
disposed.  Conditions  are  rapidly  improving 
in  this  respect,  but  they  are  still  far  from  satis- 
factory. The  chief  difficulty  with  secondary- 
school  courses  is  that  they  include  too  many 
subjects  pursued  for  too  short   a  time.     The 

1  Report  of  the  Committee  of  Ten  on  Secondary-School  Studies 
(New  York,  1894),  p.  52. 


OF  SECONDARY  EDUCATION  217 

horrible  spectre  of  "Fourteen  Weeks,"  in  this, 
that,  or  the  other  subject  still  haunts  many 
schools,  and  an  unintelligent  ambition  or  a 
foolish  local  vanity  contemplates  it  with  ill- 
concealed  satisfaction.  When  the  Committee 
of  Ten  made  their  investigation  they  found 
that  the  programmes  of  forty  unusually  good 
secondary  schools  contained  this  appalling  list 
of  subjects: 

Languages:  English,  French,  German,  Span-  Overcrowded 
ish,  Latin,  Greek — 6;  mathematics:  arith-  prolamines 
metic,  algebra,  geometry,  trigonometry,  ana- 
lytic geometry,  descriptive  geometry  —  6; 
natural  science:  mechanics,  physics,  chemistry, 
astronomy,  geography,  natural  history — 6;  and 
also  rhetoric,  drawing,  surveying,  music,  physi- 
cal training,  elocution,  psychology,  ethics, 
history,  civil  government,  constitutional  law, 
commercial  law,  political  economy,  stenography 
and  typewriting,  bookkeeping,  penmanship, 
sacred  studies — 17,  or  35  subjects  in  all.  The 
mere  reading  of  these  names  must  suggest  to 
many  of  us  programmes  that  we  have  seen  in 
which  the  attempt  has  been  made  to  provide 
for  two-thirds  or  three-fourths  of  the  entire 
list.  The  dissipation  of  energy  and  the  shat- 
tering of  the  highly  coveted  power  of  concen- 
tration that  must  follow  any  attempt  to  keep 


2l8 


TEE  SCOPE  AND  FUNCTION 


Purpose  of 
flexible  and 
elective 
courses 


track  of  such  an  educational  kaleidoscope  can 
better  be  imagined  than  described. 

It  is  essential  that  studies  should  be  organized 
in  courses,  and  these  courses  may  be  as  numer- 
ous and  as  diverse  as  the  school  can  afford  or 
as  the  community  demands.  These  courses 
should  not  be  rigid  and  compulsory:  that  in- 
volves another  and  hardly  less  serious  danger. 
They  should  be  flexible  and  elective,  made  by 
each  pupil  for  himself  with  the  aid  of  his  parents 
and  teachers.  Each  course  should  admit  of  at- 
tention to  not  more  than  five  subjects  at  once, 
and  each  subject  should  be  pursued  long  enough 
to  gain  such  mastery  of  it  as  will  cause  it  to 
yield  to  the  student  some  considerable  part  of 
its  educational  value.  My  own  preference  is 
to  have  each  subject  followed  for  an  entire 
academic  year,  at  least.  Think  how  little  one 
knows  of  a  foreign  language,  of  any  depart- 
ment of  history,  or  of  a  natural  science,  after 
even  a  full  year  of  study. 

These  flexible  and  elective  courses — the  varie- 
ties of  which  would  be  very  numerous  to  meet 
the  diverse  needs,  tastes,  and  capacities  of  the 
students — must,  of  course,  be  organized  about 
a  common  centre  or  core.  After  weighing  care- 
fully the  alternative  propositions,  I  have  come 
to  the  conclusion  that  this  centre  or  core  should 


OF  SECONDARY  EDUCATION  219 

be  threefold,  in  order  to  combine  genuine  and 
well-proportioned  discipline  with  abundant  op- 
portunity to  meet  individual  needs.  The  three 
constituent  elements  of  this  centre  or  core,  I 
state  in  this  way:  (1)  the  study  of  language; 
(2)  the  study  of  deductive  reasoning,  in  math- 
ematics and  formal  logic;  (3)  the  study  of  in- 
ductive method,  in  experimental  science,  in 
vocational  preparation,  and,  in  part,  in  history. 
If  it  be  provided  that  the  course  pursued  by 
every  student  must  contain  a  subject  selected 
from  each  of  these  three  classes,  we  may  safely 
trust  to  the  student's  tastes,  needs,  and  ambi- 
tions, together  with  the  advice  of  his  parents 
and  teachers,  both  to  select  the  specified  sub- 
jects and  to  add  to  them  others  that  lie  out- 
side those  classes.  He  cannot  very  well  fail 
to  make  a  satisfactory  course.  This  arrange- 
ment suits  equally  well  the  student  who  has 
a  college  course  in  view,  or  his  fellow  who  looks 
forward  to  a  scientific  school,  an  agricultural 
college,  a  technical  institute,  a  business  career, 
or  indeed  any  other  form  of  occupation.  Each 
student  will  thus  be  given  a  chance  to  make 
the  best  use  of  his  adolescent  powers  during 
the  secondary-school  period,  and,  under  the 
limitations  that  I  have  suggested,  he  will  be 
able,  at  the  end  of  four  years,  to  present  to  a 


220  THE  SCOPE  AND  FUNCTION 

higher  institution  of  learning  a  certificate  of 
graduation  that  it  cannot,  and,  I  am  convinced, 
will  not  refuse  to  accept. 

It  is  in  this  elimination  of  elementary  studies 
from  the  secondary  school,  and  in  the  frank 
recognition  of  the  paramount  advantages  of 
the  elective  system,  that  I  see  the  way  of 
highest  usefulness  opening  before  the  second- 
ary school.  Instead  of  conducing  to  arrested 
development,  it  will  then  constantly  spur  the 
pupil  on  by  putting  new  difficulties  before  him. 
Instead  of  dividing  his  attention  and  interest 
among  eight,  ten,  or  even  twelve  subjects  each 
year,  so  frittering  away  his  time  and  energy,  it 
will  focus  them  upon  not  more  than  five  sub- 
jects, and  pursue  each  far  enough  and  long 
enough  to  gain  real  insight  into  it  and  genuine 
power  over  it.  Instead  of  offering  one  or  two 
rigid  courses  to  a  hundred  students,  no  two 
of  whom  are  just  alike,  it  will  make  it  possible 
(within  the  necessary  limitations  of  the  school's 
resources)  for  every  pupil  to  have  the  course 
he  most  needs  and  yet  one  that  has  balance, 
harmony,  and  undisputed  effectiveness.  The 
disciplinary  purpose  of  the  secondary  school 
will  thus  be  gained. 

Its  selective  purpose  is  of  almost  equal  im- 
portance.    From  what  I  have  already  said  of 


OF  SECONDARY  EDUCATION  221 

the  mental  characteristics  of  children  of  sec- 
ondary-school age,  it  is  evident  that  at  that 
time  new  tastes  and  unsuspected  powers  make 
their  appearance.  The  wise  and  observant 
teacher  will  seize  upon  these,  and  by  bringing 
the  pupil  in  contact  with  the  best  means  for 
their  development  will  promote  the  discovery 
whether  they  are  superficial  or  deep,  fleeting  or 
permanent;  he  will  then  guide  the  pupil's 
studies  accordingly.  The  result  of  this  atti- 
tude is  to  assist  materially  a  process  of  educa- 
tional selection  by  which  pupils  are  trained  for 
efficiency  while  gaining  a  sound  secondary 
education  as  well.  For  it  is  not  enough  that 
our  education  should  give  pupils  a  knowledge 
of  the  civilization  which  surrounds  them;  it 
must  also  fit  them  to  take  hold  of  that  civiliza- 
tion at  some  definite  point  and  so  to  support 
themselves  in  it.  That  is,  it  must  add  efficiency 
to  knowledge;  and  efficiency,  in  these  days  of 
highly  organized  and  minutely  differentiated 
societies,  implies  a  great  deal.  No  generation 
of  pupils  can  be  made  efficient  by  any  uniform 
course  of  study.  Such  a  course  will  produce 
efficiency  in  those  to  whom  it  is  best  adapted; 
the  others  must  go  to  the  wall.  A  uniform 
course  of  secondary  and  collegiate  study  would, 
as  higher  education  became  general,  result  in 


222  THE  SCOPE  AND  FUNCTION 

bread  riots  of  the  learned.  It  is  the  uniform 
course  of  gymnasial  study  in  Germany,  lasting 
through  three  generations,  which  that  coun- 
try has  to  thank  to-day  for  what  Bismarck 
himself  has  called  the  educated  proletariat. 

It  would  be  futile  to  attempt  to  make  the 
American  secondary  school  an  exact  copy  of 
any  type  of  foreign  school,  however  success- 
ful that  type  may  have  been.  There  are 
abundant  reasons  for  adhering  in  our  educa- 
tional aims  to  ideals  that  are  the  outgrowth 
of  our  own  national  conditions,  and  that  are 
suited  to  them.  The  programme  of  studies  of 
a  German  gymnasium,  of  a  French  lycee,  or 
of  an  English  public  school,  such  as  Eton  or 
Rugby,  we  would  not  duplicate  for  our  pupils 
even  if  we  could.  They  would  not  bear  trans- 
plantation; they  would  be  an  exotic  in  our 
system.  But  it  is  the  high  order  of  efficiency 
in  their  teachers,  rather  than  the  nature  and 
scope  of  their  programmes  of  study,  that  im- 
parts distinction  to  them,  and  toward  the  ob- 
taining of  this  high  quality  of  secondary-school 
teacher  that  efforts  must  be  directed  in  the 
United  States.  Professional  ability  and  exact- 
ness in  scholarly  information  cannot  be  dis- 
pensed with.  Consummate  knowledge  and  skill 
on  the  part  of  the  teacher  are  the  backbone  of 


OF  SECONDARY  EDUCATION  22$ 

any  and  every  successful  system  of  secondary 
education. 

Mr.  Herbert  Spencer  has  told  us  that  man- 
kind, like  a  group  of  men  selected  at  hap- 
hazard, is  made  up  of  a  few  clever  individu- 
als, many  ordinary  ones,  and  some  decidedly 
stupid.  The  secondary  school  must  recognize 
this  fact,  and  not  make  the  common  mistake 
of  tr)ring  to  deal  with  a  supposititious  "average 
pupil":  there  is  no  average  pupil.  It  is  one  of 
the  most  popular  blunders  of  our  contemporary 
thinking  and  writing  to  suppose  that  individ- 
uality can  be  disposed  of  by  treating  it  in  mass. 
We  speak  glibly  of  "  man,"  of  "the  industrious," 
"the  debtor  class,"  "the  intelligent,"  and  so 
on,  and  imagine  that  the  individuals  included 
in  the  generalization  have  been  satisfactorily 
disposed  of  and  sharply  marked  off  from  all 
others.  This  is  quite  untrue.  Human  individ- 
uality and  human  capacity  are  not  to  be  dis- 
posed of  so  lightly.  These  shorthand  registra- 
tions of  them  and  references  to  them  are  apt 
to  be  very  misleading,  and  nowhere  more  so 
than  in  education.  To  treat  individual  pupils 
in  this  fashion  is  to  ignore  the  selective  func- 
tion of  secondary  education,  and  to  prevent  its 
operation.  During  the  secondary-school  period, 
I  repeat,  tastes  are  to  be  developed  into  capaci- 


224  TEE  SCOPE  AND  FUNCTION 

ties  and  each  pupil  started  on  that  line  of  in- 
terest and  activity  that  is  best  adapted  to  him. 
This  is  the  element  of  truth  that  underlies  the 
definition  of  secondary  education,  already 
quoted,  given  by  the  Royal  Commission. 
Throughout  the  whole  period  of  secondary 
instruction  and  accompanying  the  study  of 
any  subject  whatsoever,  the  pupil  should  be 
taught  four  things:  to  observe,  to  record,  to 
compare,  and  to  express.  Constant  and  rigor- 
ous training  in  these  four  acts  will  not  only  do 
all  that  the  secondary  school  can  do  to  fit  its 
pupils  for  life,  but  it  will  give  them  the  best 
possible  preparation  for  any  higher  course  of 
study  which  they  may  elect  to  pursue. 

A  secondary  education  that  is  both  dis- 
ciplinary and  selective  is  of  unusual  importance 
in  this  country  on  both  social  and  political 
grounds.  Democracy  needs  intelligent  and 
trained  leadership — leadership  in  public  policy, 
leadership  in  industry,  in  commerce,  in  finance, 
leadership  in  art  and  in  letters.  The  basis  of 
training  for  leadership  is  laid  in  the  secondary 
schools,  where  the  directive  capacity  of  the 
nation  is  serving  its  apprenticeship.  There  the 
majority  of  the  men  and  women  who  are  to 
guide  the  destinies  of  the  next  generation  are 
putting  forth  their  powers   and  testing  their 


OF  SECONDARY  EDUCATION  225 

strength;  out  of  a  variety  of  intellectual  in- 
terests, nature  and  environment  lead  them  to 
make  a  selection.  Training — persistent,  thor- 
ough, broad — in  the  field  chosen,  is  the  surest 
guarantee,  if  one  can  be  given,  of  future  success 
and  of  future  usefulness. 


XII 

THE  SECONDARY  SCHOOL 
PROGRAMME 


An  address  before  the  Schoolmasters'  Association  of  New 
York  and  vicinity,  March  8,  1890 


THE  SECONDARY  SCHOOL 
PROGRAMME 

Matthew  Arnold  has  reminded  us  that  the 
secondary  school  is  the  most  ancient  of  exist- 
ing educational  institutions.  It  antedates  the 
university  by  several  centuries;  and  by  its 
side  the  primary  or  elementary  school,  spring- 
ing as  it  does  from  needs  and  ideas  that  are 
comparatively  modern,  seems  but  a  creature 
of  yesterday.  Moreover,  the  history  of  the 
secondary  school  is  unbroken  and  easily  trace- 
able. The  monastery  schools  and  the  famous 
establishments  at  St.  Gall,  Reichenau,  and 
Fulda  are  the  direct  ancestors  of  our  Etons  and 
Rugbys,  of  our  contemporary  lycees,  gymnasia, 
and  academies. 

In  the  United  States  the  educational  organi-  Threefold 
zation  is  so  indefinite  and  unformed,  and  the 
educational  terminology  in  common  use  so  un- 
systematic, that  certain  explanations  are  neces- 
sary before  any  discussion  of  the  province  and 
scope  of  the  secondary  school  may  be  under- 
taken. The  threefold  division  of  instruction 
229 


instruction 


230    SECONDARY  SCHOOL  PROGRAMME 

into  primary  or  elementary,  secondary,  and 
superior,  has  been  accepted  by  the  Bureau  of 
Education  at  Washington,  and  is  in  accord 
with  the  practise  on  the  Continent  of  Europe. 
By  superior  instruction  is  meant  that  given  in 
institutions  empowered  by  law  to  confer  de- 
grees. This  may  be  either  general  or  special, 
and  includes  in  this  country  the  colleges  and 
universities  as  well  as  the  professional  schools 
of  law,  medicine,  theology,  education,  agricul- 
ture, pharmacy,  engineering,  and  the  like.  The 
implication  is,  though  unfortunately  not  al- 
ways the  fact,  that  these  institutions  for  supe- 
rior instruction  have  required  of  applicants  for 
admission  the  possession  of  an  approved  sec- 
ondary education.  By  primary  or  elementary 
instruction  is  meant  such  as  the  state  is  justi- 
fied in  requiring  of  all  children  for  its  own 
safety  and  perpetuity.  In  the  present  state 
of  educational  science  this  may  safely  be  held 
to  include  a  knowledge  of  reading  and  writing, 
and  some  instruction  in  elementary  arithmetic, 
geography,  history,  natural  science,  and  manual 
training.  This  elementary  education  should 
begin  not  later  than  the  sixth  year  of  life,  and 
with  the  average  child  seven  years  may  be  de- 
voted to  it,  although  specially  intelligent  or 
studious    children    may    be    permitted,    as    in 


SECONDARY  SCIIOOL  PROGRAMME     231 

France,  to  complete  the  prescribed  studies  in 
less  time. 

It  would  seem  natural,  then,  that  the  field  Field  of 
of  secondary  instruction  should  be  that  which  ^8^,.^ 
lies  between  the  elementary  and  the  superior 
schools.  But  this  is  not  quite  true.  There  is 
and  can  be  no  sharp  line  of  division  between 
the  various  grades  of  instruction.  They  pass 
gradually,  even  insensibly,  into  each  other. 
In  order  to  prevent  the  pupil's  development 
from  being  arrested  and  his  capacity  for  educa- 
tion from  being  brought  to  an  end,  he  must 
constantly  be  led  on  to  new  heights.  For  this 
reason  certain  studies,  usually  classed  as  be- 
longing to  secondary  education,  such  as  algebra 
and  a  foreign  language,  are  very  appropriately 
taught  in  the  upper  grades  of  the  elementary 
school.  A  beginning  in  the  field  of  secondary 
studies  is  therefore  made  before  the  limits  of 
the  elementary  school  are  reached,  and  by  the 
time  that  the  pupil  is  twelve,  eleven,  or  even 
ten  years  of  age.  This  is  actually  the  case  with 
the  French  lycee  and  the  Prussian  gymnasium. 

At  the  upper  end  of  the  secondary  school 
course  a  similar  condition  is  found.  There  is 
no  reason  why  many  secondary  schools,  partic- 
ular!)- public  high  schools,  over  60  per  cent  of 
whose  graduates  do  not  go  on  to  a  higher  edu- 


232     SECONDARY  SCHOOL  PROGRAMME 

cational  institution,  should  not  give  instruc- 
tion in  subjects  such  as  logic,  political  economy, 
and  trigonometry,  which  are  contained  in  every 
college  course.  Unless  this  policy  is  adopted, 
the  vast  majority  of  American  boys  and  girls 
will  be  deprived  of  all  opportunity  to  come  in 
contact  with  these  studies  and  others  like  them. 
Effect  of  In    the   past   the   secondary    school   in   this 

college-  country  has   been  very  often   dwarfed  in  im- 

admission  J  J 

examinations  portance  and  deprived  of  its  proper  spontane- 
ity and  individuality,  because  it  has  permitted 
itself  to  settle  down  to  the  routine  task  of 
preparing  pupils  for  entrance  examination  to 
college,  fixed  and  conducted  by  the  college 
authorities.  Whatever  that  entrance  exami- 
nation demanded,  and  in  some  cases  just  a 
trifle  more,  has  been  taught;  whatever  such 
examination  did  not  call  for,  no  matter  how 
important  or  valuable  it  might  be  for  a  boy's 
education,  has  not  been  taught.  The  second- 
ary school  has  been  too  largely  dominated  by 
the  college;  and  in  few  cases  has  that  domina- 
tion been  other  than  unfortunate.  As  notable 
instances  of  the  contrary  effect  may  be  men- 
tioned the  stimulating  influence  of  the  more 
recent  regulations  regarding  entrance  examina- 
tions adopted  by  Harvard  College,  particularly 
in    geometry    and    in    physics,    and   the   novel 


SECONDARY  SCIIOOL  PROGRAMME    233 

unity  and  thoroughness  imparted  to  the  in- 
struction in  English  in  the  secondary  schools 
by  the  action  of  the  colleges  in  uniting  with 
the  schools  in  deciding  upon  a  uniform  scheme 
of  requirements  for  entrance  in  that  subject. 

It  is  neither  proper  nor  dignified  for  the  sec- 
ondary schools  to  continue  in  this  condition  of 
dependence  upon  college-entrance  examina- 
tions. They  should  be  independent  and  self- 
centred.  By  a  careful  study  of  the  history  and 
principles  of  education,  coupled  with  the  teach- 
ings of  their  own  large  experience,  they  should 
seek  to  devise  that  course  of  study  and  those 
methods  of  instruction  that  are  best  suited  to 
the  mental,  moral,  and  physical  development 
and  culture  of  the  boys  and  girls  committed  to 
their  care.  Nor  need  it  be  feared  that  in  so 
doing  they  will  interfere  in  any  way  with  the 
preparation  of  their  pupils  for  college  work. 
For  in  education  it  is  profoundly  true  that  that 
which  is  intrinsically  the  best  in  any  particular 
stage  of  development,  is  also  the  best  prepara- 
tion for  that  which  comes  after. 

If  the  American  boy  is  to  obtain  his  bacca-  Waste  in 

•  .  1  r  education 

laureate  degree  at  the  age  ot  twenty  or  twenty- 
one  (which  is  considerably  more  than  a  year 
later  than  the  French  boys  leave  the  lycee,  and 
the  Prussian  boys  the  gymnasium),  he  must  be 


234    SECONDARY  SCHOOL  PROGRAMME 

ready  to  enter  college  not  later  than  seventeen; 
and  this  can  be  managed  while  actually  pro- 
viding for  the  secondary  school  a  more  com- 
prehensive curriculum  than  at  present  obtains. 
Before  discussing  in  detail  the  composition  of 
such  a  curriculum,  one  or  two  preliminary 
considerations  must  be  mentioned.  They  may, 
however,  be  dismissed  very  briefly,  since  they 
have  so  recently  been  treated  with  the  highest 
authority  by  President  Eliot.1  The  first  of 
these  has  to  do  with  the  length  of  the  school 
day  and  that  of  the  vacations.  The  former 
should  never  be  less  than  five  full  hours  of 
study  and  school  discipline;  the  tendency  to 
shorten  it  any  further  is  irrational  and  should 
be  checked.  A  programme  arranged  on  sound 
educational  principles  can  occupy  five  hours 
a  day  easily  enough  without  in  any  way  im- 
pairing the  pupil's  health  or  lessening  his  in- 
terest, unless  the  teacher  is  peculiarly  lacking 
in  mental  equipment  and  professional  qualifi- 
cations. The  vacations  are  now  unduly  long, 
and  seem  to  be  yielding  to  a  certain  strong 
social  pressure  to  make  them  even  longer.  The 
old-fashioned  summer  vacation  of  four  or  six 
weeks   has   long   since   become   one   of  ten   or 

1  "  Can   School   Programmes   be    Shortened    and   Enriched  ? " 
Atlantic  Monthly,  August,  1888,  pp.  250-8. 


SECONDARY  SCHOOL  PROGRAMME     235 

twelve,  and  in  our  city  schools  a  summer  vaca- 
tion of  fifteen  or  even  sixteen  weeks  is  by  no 
means  a  curiosity.  It  is  the  teacher  who  needs 
this  vacation  more  than  the  pupil.  But  even 
from  his  standpoint  the  present  practise  has 
gone  beyond  reasonable  bounds.  The  German 
method  of  giving  three  weeks  at  Easter,  one 
at  Pfingsten,  six  in  midsummer,  one  at  Michael- 
mas, and  two  at  Christmas  seems  wiser  than 
ours,  for  it  makes  a  more  frequent  alternation 
between  work  and  play.  Perhaps  sixteen 
weeks — including  the  recesses  at  Christmas 
and  Easter  and  a  long  summer  vacation,  as 
better  suited  to  our  climate  and  habits  of  life 
than  the  German  plan — might  be  agreed  upon 
as  the  maximum  period  in  which  school  duties 
may  wisely  be  suspended  each  year. 

But  in  addition  to  the  school  year  of  thirty-  Need  of 
six  weeks  and  twenty-five  hours  in  each  week,  ^.etter" 

J  trained 

the  secondary  schools  are  sadly  in  need  of  secondary 
better-trained  teachers.  It  is  remarkable  how  teac 
entirely  the  teachers  in  these  schools  have  re- 
mained uninfluenced  by  the  great  interest  in 
the  science  and  art  of  teaching  which  has  of 
late  years  manifested  itself  both  in  this  coun- 
try and  in  Europe.  Secure  in  their  possession 
of  a  considerable  amount  of  knowledge  and  of 
more    or    less    culture,    the    secondary    school 


236    SECONDARY  SCHOOL  PROGRAMME 

teachers  have  not  seemed  to  understand  the 
significance  or  the  value  of  a  professional  prep- 
aration. As  a  result  their  work  has  been  done 
in  a  routine,  imitative  way,  and  their  pupils 
have  suffered.  Most  of  the  criticisms  that  may 
now  be  legitimately  made  upon  the  work  of 
the  secondary  schools  would  be  disarmed  if 
the  teachers  in  these  schools  were  abreast  of 
the  present  development  of  their  art.  One  im- 
portant reason  why  the  secondary  schools  have 
not  felt  this  full  measure  of  progress  in  methods 
of  teaching  that  is  so  marked  in  the  elementary 
schools,  is  that  secondary  teachers  are  usually 
college  graduates,  and  the  colleges  have,  until 
very  recently,  done  so  little  to  show  that  they 
are  aware  of  what  is  being  accomplished  in  the 
study  of  education.  Consequently  they  have 
failed  to  contribute  their  proper  proportion  of 
duly  qualified  teachers.  Until  the  colleges 
assume  their  full  responsibility  in  this  matter 
and  endeavor  to  discharge  it,  the  work  of  the 
secondary  school,  speaking  broadly,  will  not  be 
as  well  done  as  it  might  be. 
Aim  of  Assuming  that  more  competent  teachers  are 

secondary  hand,  and  that  a  school  year  of  thirty-six 

instruction  '  . 

weeks  of  twenty-five  hours  each  is  agreed  upon, 
what  should  be  the  aim  of  the  instruction  in 
the  secondary  school,  and  with  what  curriculum 


SECONDARY  SCHOOL  PROGRAMME    237 

should  it  endeavor  to  accomplish  it  ?  It  should 
be  the  aim  of  the  secondary  school,  I  take  it, 
by  instruction  and  discipline  to  lay  the  founda- 
tion for  that  cultivation  and  inspiration  that 
mark  the  truly  educated  man.  In  endeavor- 
ing to  attain  this  ideal,  the  secondary  school 
must  not  lose  sight  of  the  fact  that  it  is  educat- 
ing boys  who  are  to  assume  the  duties  and 
responsibilities  of  citizenship,  and  who  must, 
in  all  probability,  pursue  a  specific  calling  for 
the  purpose  of  gaining  a  livelihood.  The  fact 
that  the  secondary  school  has  also  a  selective 
function  to  perform  is  often  overlooked.  Yet 
this  is  most  important.  Secondary  school 
pupils  are  adolescents,  and  their  tastes  and 
capacities  are  rapidly  forming  and  finding  ex- 
pression. To  afford  opportunity  for  these  to 
develop,  and  to  encourage  them  to  develop 
along  the  best  and  most  effective  lines,  is  an 
obvious  duty  of  the  secondary  school.  Be- 
cause they  are  not  selective,  many  secondary 
courses  of  study  are  very  ineffective. 

To   prepare   a   course  of  study  which   shall  Secondary 
keep  all  these  points  in  mind,  and  at  the  same  "gamine 
time  afford  the  developing  intellect  of  the  pupil  of  study 
that  exercise  of  which  it  is  capable,  is  not  an 
easy  task.     Indeed,  it  presents  some  problems 
which  but  a  little  while  ajro  seemed  almost  im- 


238    SECONDARY  SCHOOL  PROGRAMME 

possible  of  solution.  But  patience,  wider  ex- 
perience, and  a  careful  study  of  the  surround- 
ing conditions  have  lessened  the  difficulties. 
The  chief  of  these  is  perhaps  that  created  by 
the  rapid  development  and  present  importance 
of  scientific  and  technical  schools.  These  in- 
stitutions represent  a  real  and  significant 
movement  in  modern  civilization.  They  have 
complicated  the  question  of  a  curriculum  for 
secondary  schools  by  demanding  a  preparation 
quite  different  from  that  required  for  entrance 
to  the  average  American  college.  That  the 
problem  thus  raised  belongs  to  the  field  of 
secondary  education  in  general  and  is  not  due 
to  conditions  prevailing  in  any  one  country 
alone,  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  England, 
Germany,  and  France  have  all  been  brought 
face  to  face  with  it  as  we  have  been.  In  each 
of  these  countries  much  progress  toward  its 
solution  has  been  made.  In  England  the  so- 
called  "modern  side"  has  been  added  to  the 
traditional  classical  course.  In  France  the 
lycee  has  its  cours  special  in  which  mathematics 
and  the  sciences  replace  Latin  and  Greek.  In 
Germany  the  well-established  real-gymnasium 
and  real-schule  are  every  year  justifying  their 
right  to  exist  on  an  equal  plane  with  the  gym- 
nasium  itself.     A   specially   interesting   move- 


SECONDARY  SCHOOL  PROGRAMME     230 

ment  in  this  connection  is  one  in  Germany 
which  has  for  some  time  past  been  calling  for 
the  establishment  of  an  Einheitsschule,  in 
which  the  main  features  both  of  gymnasium 
and  real-schule  are  to  be  combined. 

The  appropriate  course  of  study  for  the  typ- 
ical American  secondary  school  is  one  in  which 
eight  elements  should  always  be  represented: 
namely,  the  mother  tongue,  geography  and  his- 
tory, natural  science,  mathematics,  Latin  and 
Greek,  French  and  German,  drawing  and  con- 
structive work  (manual  training),  and  physical 
training.  It  combines  some  features  of  the 
English  "modern  side"  with  some  of  those  of 
the  French  cours  special,  and  is  not  unlike  what 
German  students  of  education  have  in  mind 
under  the  name  of  Einheitss chide.  It  involves 
beginning  the  study  of  one  foreign  language  at 
ten  or  eleven  years  of  age,  and  the  elements  of 
algebra  and  of  plane  geometry  shortly  after- 
ward. Ample  choice  would  be  permitted  to 
students,  provided  only  that  not  more  than 
five  so-called  "book"  subjects  were  carried  on 
at  once,  that  no  two  new  languages  were  begun 
at  the  same  time,  and  that  English,  geography 
and  history,  and  natural  science  were  always 
represented.  Pupils  of  a  different  tempera- 
ment,   of  different    points   of  view,    and   with 


240    SECONDARY  SCHOOL  PROGRAMME 

different  purposes  in  life  would  be  guided  to 
express  and  to  satisfy  themselves  to  the  fullest 
extent  possible.  The  ability  to  read  intelli- 
gently, to  write  legibly,  and  to  perform  under- 
standing^ and  correctly  with  integers  the  four 
fundamental  operations  of  arithmetic,  must  be 
insisted  upon  at  ten  years  of  age. 

The  growing  practise  of  postponing  even 
this  modicum  of  knowledge  until  after  the 
tenth  year  is  to  be  emphatically  discouraged. 
Attention  has  recently  been  called  to  the  fact 
that  one  of  the  best-known  academies  in  the 
United  States  requires  for  admission  only  some 
knowledge  of  common-school  arithmetic,  writ- 
ing, spelling,  and  the  elements  of  English 
grammar,  and  that  the  average  age  of  pupils 
on  entering  is  sixteen  and  one-half  years.  At 
this  age  the  French  boy  is  reading  Cicero,  Vir- 
gil, and  Horace,  Sophocles  and  Plato,  Shaks- 
pere  and  Tennyson,  as  well  as  studying  gen- 
eral history,  solid  geometry,  and  chemistry. 
His  German  contemporary  is  similarly  ad- 
vanced. It  is  very  evident  that  at  this  point 
there  is  a  tremendous  waste  in  our  educational 
system.  It  must  be  remedied  and  remedied 
speedily,  if  our  higher  education  is  not  to  be 
discredited  altogether. 

What  is  included  under  each  of  the  topics 


SECONDARY  SCHOOL  PROGRAMME     241 

of   study    above    enumerated    may    be    briefly 
outlined. 

1.  English — The  study  of  the  mother  tongue  English 
must  not  be  neglected  by  any  class  of  students. 
But  it  must  be  far  better  taught  than  now  and 
with  a  different  aim.  That  the  instruction  in 
English,  both  in  school  and  college,  has  been 
sadly  neglected  and  little  developed  in  the 
past  will  not  be  denied.  Perhaps  no  one  but 
the  college  professor  who  requires  original 
written  work  from  his  pupils  knows  how  in- 
sufficient and  inefficient  the  English  teaching 
in  the  secondary  school  is.  A  very  large  propor- 
tion of  those  students  who  reach  the  bac- 
calaureate degree  do  not  possess  the  ability  to 
express  with  accuracy  and  conciseness,  whether 
orally  or  in  writing,  even  a  simple  train  of 
thought.  This  woful  neglect  of  the  mother 
tongue  has  been  largely  due,  as  Paulsen  points 
out  is  the  case  in  Germany,  to  the  great  pre- 
ponderance of  classical  instruction  and  the 
impression  that  this  afforded  all  the  linguistic 
training  necessary.  We  have  gradually  eman- 
cipated ourselves  from  the  tyranny  of  this  no- 
tion; and  now  the  long-neglected  study  of  the 
mother  tongue  is  beginning  to  receive  proper 
recognition  in  schools  of  every  grade.  Our 
ideals  for  this  study  are  no  longer  satisfied  by 


242    SECONDARY  SCHOOL  PROGRAMME 

the  plodding  through  a  grammar  and  by  the 
memorizing  of  a  few  rules  and  canons  of  rhetoric. 
Language  study,  and  particularly  that  of  a  tongue 
so  rich,  so  versatile,  and  so  intrinsically  inter- 
esting as  our  own,  means  far  more  than  that. 
The  general  aim  of  this  instruction  in  the 
secondary  school  should  be  to  impart  a  knowl- 
edge of  the  principal  laws  of  structure  and  syn- 
tax, to  develop  ease,  fluency,  and  correctness 
in  speaking  and  writing,  to  point  out  the  princi- 
pal stages  in  the  history  of  English  literature, 
and  to  bring  the  pupil  to  an  acquaintance  with 
some  of  the  great  masterpieces  of  prose  and 
verse.  Wide  but  carefully  chosen  reading  and 
frequent  and  systematic  exercises  in  composi- 
tion are  the  most  efficient  means  of  instruction. 
It  should  be  remarked,  however,  that  com- 
position writing  is  valuable  only  if  the  pupil's 
work  is  carefully  and  intelligently  corrected 
and  criticised.  Otherwise  it  is  a  positive  evil, 
for  it  serves  to  exaggerate,  and  make  habitual 
faults  already  present  in  the  use  of  language. 
It  is  of  the  highest  importance  that  the  pupil 
should  be  accustomed  to  hear  correct  English 
spoken.  Downright  inaccuracy  of  speech  should 
be  considered  sufficient  reason  for  a  teacher's 
removal.  A  boy  will  learn  more  evil  in  a  week 
from  a  bad  example  than  he  will  derive  good 


SECONDARY  SCHOOL  PROGRAMME     243 

from  a  book  in  a  month.  Most  language  in- 
struction should  be  oral  and  the  pupil  should 
from  the  very  first  take  a  large  part  in  the 
exercises.  As  language  is  but  the  form  and 
expression  of  thought,  care  should  be  taken  to 
see  that  thought  is  always  expressed  by  it. 
This  cannot  be  the  case  if  the  pupil  is  forced 
ahead  either  too  rapidly  or  in  an  unnatural 
course.  The  amount  of  time  proposed  for  this 
branch  of  study  is  therefore  comparatively 
large,  and  no  class  should  be  relieved  of  the 
necessity  of  writing  dictation-exercises  or  com- 
positions at  least  as  often  as  once  a  week. 
When  this  is  done  and  done  properly  in  the 
secondary  school,  the  college  instruction  in 
English  may  enter  upon  that  which  really  be- 
longs to  it,  and  will  no  longer  be  compelled  to 
devote  itself,  as  now,  almost  wholly  to  what 
President  Charles  Kendall  Adams  once  happily 
described  as  "the  flagellation  of  bad  English." 
Nor  should  it  be  forgotten  that  the  secondary 
school  must  bear  its  share  in  teaching  pupils 
how  and  what  to  read,  in  the  best  and  deepest 
sense  of  that  phrase.  No  English  instruction 
is  entirely  successful  unless  it  implants  in  every 
pupil  a  love  of  the  masters  of  thought  and  style, 
and  a  desire  to  grow  more  and  more  familiar 
with  them. 


244    SECONDARY  SCHOOL  PROGRAMME 

Geography  2.  Geography    and    History — These    comple- 

and  history  mentary  studies,  inseparable  from  each  other 
and  indispensable  to  a  sound  education,  have 
also  been  sadly  neglected  in  the  secondary 
schools.  We  might  truthfully  say  of  the  Amer- 
icans, as  Breal  said  a  few  years  ago  of  his  fellow 
Frenchmen,  that  they  are  celebrated  for  their 
ignorance  of  geography.  The  subject  has  been 
so  badly  taught  that  it  might  almost  as  well 
have  been  passed  over  altogether.  We  are 
now  beginning  to  follow  the  example  set  us  by 
Germany  in  teaching  geography,  and  perhaps 
in  a  few  years  it  will  be  adequately  presented 
in  the  schools.  Geography  has  two  distinct 
aims.  It  seeks  to  point  out  and  describe  the 
character,  the  divisions,  the  climate,  and  the 
configuration  of  the  surface  of  the  globe  that 
we  inhabit,  and  also  to  trace  the  modifications 
which  man  himself  has  made  and  the  artificial 
divisions  that  he  has  marked  off  upon  it.  When 
dealing  with  the  former  questions  geography  is 
physical;  when  considering  the  latter  it  is 
political  and  commercial.  It  thus  occupies  a 
position  between  the  natural  and  the  historical 
sciences  and  connects  the  two. 

When  geography  is  properly  taught,  the 
child  is  first  led  to  observe  his  immediate  sur- 
roundings.   The  points  of  the  compass,  relative 


SECONDARY  SCHOOL  PROGRAMME     245 

situations  and  distances,  the  real  significance 
of  a  map  may  all  be  taught  and  best  taught 
with  reference  to  the  city,  town,  or  village  in 
which  the  particular  school  is  situated.  The 
schoolroom  should  be  well  supplied  with  globes, 
relief-maps,  charts,  and  other  illustrative  ma- 
terial, in  order  that,  when  the  pupil  passes  from 
the  consideration  of  his  immediate  surround- 
ings to  that  of  localities  at  a  distance,  his 
understanding  may  receive  the  assistance  of 
these  symbolic  representations.  When  political 
and  commercial  geography  is  undertaken,  its 
close  relation  with  history  makes  it  both  ad- 
visable and  necessary  to  teach  both  subjects 
together.  Perhaps  no  study  that  is  pursued 
at  this  age  brings  to  the  pupil  a  richer  store  of 
facts  or  a  greater  intellectual  stimulus  than 
do  these.  Historical  teaching  proper  will  of 
course  begin  with  the  narration  of  the  lives  of 
great  men,  and  the  story  of  their  achievements. 
About  this  as  a  nucleus  may  be  grouped  a 
considerable  body  of  facts,  and  an  account  of 
the  tendencies  set  in  operation  by  leaders  of 
thought  and  action.  This  mode  of  presenta- 
tion familiarizes  the  pupil  from  the  first  with 
the  human  factor,  the  spiritual  force,  in  his- 
tory. The  scope  of  the  historical  teaching  in 
an  American  secondary  school  should  include 


246    SECONDARY  SCHOOL  PROGRAMME 

an  accurate  knowledge  of  the  main  facts  in 
the  history  of  the  United  States  and  of  England, 
as  well  as  a  general  acquaintance  with  the 
progress  of  universal  history.  It  will  not  omit 
the  outlines  of  economic  life,  or  fail  to  lead  up 
to  an  acquaintance  with  modern  economic  and 
social  problems. 
Mathematics  3.  Mathematics — Whether  or  not  Sir  Wil- 
liam Hamilton  was  justified  in  his  unfavorable 
judgment  as  to  the  value  of  mathematical 
study,  it  seems  clear  that  our  schools  have 
devoted  too  much  time  to  the  subject.  Under 
the  guise  of  mathematics  much  has  been  taught 
that  is  not  mathematics  at  all.  Abstruse  and 
very  absurd  problems  and  puzzles  in  logic  are 
to  be  found  in  almost  every  mathematical  text- 
book under  the  delusive  heading  of  "  Examples." 
These  simply  vex  and  discourage  the  student 
and  arouse  in  him  a  distaste  for  what  is  really 
valuable  and  practical  in  mathematical  study. 
They  should  be  passed  over  entirely,  as  should 
also  many  of  the  complexities  of  commercial 
arithmetic,  and  all  but  three  or  four  of  the 
tables  of  weights  and  measures.  The  metric 
system  must  be  taught  as  a  matter  of  course. 
The  elements  of  plane  geometry  should  precede 
algebra  for  every  reason  known  to  sound  educa- 
tional theory.     It  is  more  fundamental,  it  is 


SECOXDARV  SCHOOL  PROGRAMME     247 

more  concrete,  and  it  deals  with  things  and 
their  relations  rather  than  with  symbols.  In 
the  form  of  what  the  Germans  call  Raumlehre, 
many  geometrical  facts  would  be  taught  from 
the  first,  in  the  proposed  curriculum,  under 
the  head  of  drawing  and  constructive  work. 
When  the  formal  proofs  of  geometry  are  later 
entered  upon,  they  will  therefore  be  seen  to 
be  easy  and  natural,  rather  than  difficult  and 
wholly  strange.  Good  teaching  in  mathematics 
should  enable  the  student  who  follows  a  classical 
course  during  the  last  three  years  in  the  sec- 
ondary school  to  enter  college  with  a  good 
understanding  of  arithmetic,  algebra,  and  ge- 
ometry, both  plane  and  solid.  The  student 
selecting  a  scientific  course  in  the  secondary 
school  could  add  to  this  a  knowledge  of  analytic 
geometry,  of  trigonometry,  and  perhaps  of 
determinants  as  well. 

4.  Natural  Science — This  is  a  term  of  wide  Natural 
and  varying  significance.  As  used  here,  it  has 
two  meanings.  During  the  earlier  years  of 
the  course,  it  is  equivalent  to  the  term  Natur- 
beschreibung  as  used  in  German  school  pro- 
grammes. Applied  to  the  later  years,  it  means 
the  experimental  study  of  chemistry  and 
physics.  In  the  lower  grades  it  is  not  spe- 
cifically   physics    or    chemistry   or   geology   or 


Greek 


248    SECONDARY  SCHOOL  PROGRAMME 

botany  or  physiology  or  astronomy  that  is 
studied,  but  something  of  all  these.  The  sub- 
ject-matter is  found  in  the  facts  of  nature  which 
surround  the  child  on  every  hand,  and  which 
should  be  as  familiar  to  him  as  the  names  he 
hears.  This  instruction  aims  to  open  the  pupil's 
eyes,  to  teach  him  how  and  what  to  see,  and 
to  appreciate  what  the  word  nature  means. 
It  is  the  most  fascinating  of  school  studies; 
and  it  complements  and  runs  into  almost  every 
other  subject. 
Latin  and  5.  Latin  and  Greek — In  the  secondary  schools 

of  Europe,  Latin  still  occupies  the  leading 
place.  Greek  is  begun  later  than  Latin,  and 
when  the  Latin  is  well  taught  Greek  needs  less 
time  and  effort  for  the  mastery  of  so  much  of 
it  as  is  desirable  during  the  period  of  secondary 
instruction.  Inasmuch  as  both  serve  practically 
the  same  purpose  in  education,  they  may  prop- 
erly be  spoken  of  under  a  single  head. 

It  seems  quite  safe  to  predict  that  no  culture 
will  ever  be  considered  broad  and  deep  unless 
it  rests  upon  an  understanding  and  apprecia- 
tion of  the  civilizations  of  Greece  and  Rome. 
Whether  such  culture  is  necessary  or  even  im- 
portant for  the  great  body  of  the  population, 
and  whether  the  classics  are  properly  taught  or 
not,    are    very    different    questions    from   that 


SECONDARY  SCHOOL  PROGRAMME     249 

which  is  raised  as  to  their  educational  value. 
It  is  only  as  respects  one  or  the  other  of  the 
former  that  recent  criticism  and  attack  have 
been  in  any  degree  successful.  The  classics 
have  suffered  from  being  forced  upon  those  who 
cared  nothing  for  them  and  would  care  nothing. 
They  have  also  suffered,  and  very  severely, 
through  the  waste  of  time  they  have  involved. 
But  both  of  these  objections  may  be  removed 
without  weakening  in  any  degree  the  position 
of  the  classics.  To  the  charge  of  bad  and 
wasteful  methods  of  classical  teaching,  much  of 
it  done  under  the  guise  of  thoroughness,  the 
schools  must  plead  guilty.  They  have  been  en- 
deavoring to  make  philologists  out  of  the 
material  afforded  by  the  average  schoolboy. 
The  greatest  value  of  the  classics  is  found  in 
the  ability  to  read  and  understand  the  great 
poets,  philosophers,  and  historians  who  wrote 
for  all  time  in  the  Greek  and  Latin  tongues. 
The  boasted  discipline  of  classical  study  for 
the  attention  and  reasoning  powers  may  be 
quite  as  well  obtained  from  studies  which  touch 
more  closely  the  practical  life  of  the  great  mass 
of  the  population.  This  argument  is,  there- 
fore, not  only  unsound,  but  needless  for  the 
classicist  to  use,  since  he  has  at  his  command 
others   that    are   stronger   and   more  effective. 


2 so    SECONDARY  SCHOOL  PROGRAMME 

To  know  something  of  the  spirit  of  Sophocles, 
Demosthenes,  and  Plato,  of  Cicero,  Horace, 
and  Tacitus,  and  to  understand  the  civiliza- 
tions and  the  points  of  view  that  they  repre- 
sent, are,  from  one  point  of  view,  almost  enough 
to  give  the  fortunate  one  a  claim  to  culture. 
The  wearisome  grammatical  drill  and  the  te- 
dious reiteration  of  details  that  are  relatively  of 
little  value,  save  in  so  far  as  these  are  absolutely 
necessary  to  enable  the  pupil  to  read  intelli- 
gently, are  out  of  place  in  secondary  education. 
The  proper  aim  of  classical  instruction  at  this 
period  is  stated  with  great  clearness  and  force 
in  the  comments  on  the  course  of  study  fur- 
nished by  the  Prussian  minister  of  public 
instruction  to  the  teachers  in  the  most  success- 
ful secondary  school  yet  devised,  the  gym- 
nasium.   The  minister  says: 

So  far  as  the  end  to  be  attained  by  a  knowledge  of  lan- 
guage is  concerned,  it  is  hardly  necessary  to  adduce  argu- 
ments to  justify  the  proposition  that  the  acquisition  of 
a  vocabulary  is  of  at  least  as  much  importance  as  famili- 
arity with  grammatical  details.  For  it  is  just  by  means 
of  this  vocabulary  that  satisfaction  is  gained  as  facility 
in  reading  is  acquired;  by  means  of  it,  too,  interest  in 
reading  extends  beyond  the  period  of  school  life.  The 
aim  of  the  gymnasium  is  not,  however,  attained  when  the 
pupils  are  able  merely  to  read  works  of  a  certain  degree 
of  difficulty.     Emphasis  is  much  rather  to  be  laid  upon  the 


SECONDARY  SCHOOL  PROGRAMME     251 

fact  that  they  have  read  works  of  a  certain  scope  and 
character,  and  upon  the  manner  in  which  they  have  read 
them.  As  regards  the  method  of  reading,  two  points  must 
be  kept  in  mind;  it  must  be  based  upon  verbal  accuracy 
and  it  must  lead  to  an  appreciation  of  the  thought  which 
is  expressed  and  the  form  chosen  for  its  expression.  On 
the  former  consideration  rests  the  disciplinary  value  of 
the  classics;  on  the  latter  the  basis  of  that  which,  when 
fully  developed,  is  designated  as  classical  culture.  A 
treatment  of  this  reading  which  neglects  grammatical  and 
lexical  exactness,  leads  to  superficiality;  a  treatment 
which  makes  the  acquisition  of  grammatical  and  lexical 
exactness  the  main  aim  of  reading,  overlooks  a  funda- 
mental reason  for  the  teaching  of  Latin  in  the  gymnasium. 
Special  attention  must  be  called  to  this  latter  error,  for 
it  endangers  both  the  interest  of  the  students  in  the  study 
of  the  ancient  languages  and  the  reputation  of  the  gym- 
nasium among  its  most  thoughtful  supporters,  by  turning 
the  teaching  of  the  classics,  even  in  the  highest  grades, 
into  a  mere  repetition  of  grammatical  rules  and  a  memo- 
rizing of  minute  details  as  to  synonyms  and  style. 

This  applies  to  the  United  States  quite  as 
well  as  to  Prussia,  and  to  the  study  of  Greek 
as  much  as  to  that  of  Latin.  When  these  di- 
rections are  followed  it  will  be  easy  enough  to 
read  considerably  more  of  the  classics  than  is 
now  done  in  the  secondary  schools,  and  to  do 
it  in  the  time  at  the  teacher's  disposal.  It  may 
also  be  observed  that  the  grammatical  details 
of  different   languages,  when  alike,   should  be 


252    SECONDARY  SCHOOL  PROGRAMME 

studied  once  for  all  and  not  repeated  for  every 
new  language  taken  up.  Devices  for  carrying 
out  this  suggestion  have  been  prepared  under 
the  form  of  parallel  grammars,  and  are  now 
used  in  a  few  schools  both  in  this  country  and 
in  Great  Britain. 

As  a  rule  the  classical  teacher  has  not  appre- 
ciated the  changed  educational  conditions  and 
the  new  demands  made  upon  the  schools.  He 
has  therefore  provoked  antagonism  when  he 
should  have  invited  co-operation.  He  must 
recognize  that  while  the  secondary  school  can- 
not dispense  with  the  classics,  it  can  no  longer 
be  completely  dominated  by  them.  Yet  he 
must  insistently  make  it  plain  that  the  study  of 
the  literature  and  the  life  of  Greece  and  Rome 
means  to  the  modern  European  or  American 
precisely  what  the  study  of  embryology  means 
to  the  biologist  and  the  study  of  social  origins 
to  the  economist  and  the  political  scientist. 
French  and  6.  French  and  German — These  are  indispen- 

sable in  the  secondary  school.  It  was  Goethe 
who  said:  "A  man  who  knows  only  his  own 
language  does  not  know  even  that."  One 
modern  language  should  be  begun  early  and 
studied  continuously  for  several  years.  To 
some  it  may  seem  a  matter  of  indifference 
whether  French  or  German  is  first  taken  up. 


German 


SECONDARY  SCHOOL  PROGRAMME     253 

But  French  seems  to  offer  to  the  English-speak- 
ing student  more  difficulties  of  pronunciation 
and  of  idiom  than  German,  and  should  there- 
fore be  begun  before  the  pupil  has  acquired 
very  fixed  notions  of  grammatical  and  rhetorical 
canons.  Moreover,  the  relation  between  French 
and  Latin  seems  to  furnish  a  good  reason  for 
making  the  two,  to  a  certain  extent,  interde- 
pendent and  illustrative,  the  one  of  the  other. 
An  ability  to  read  French,  to  understand  it 
when  spoken,  and  in  some  measure  to  write 
it  and  to  speak  it  having  been  attained,  the 
mastery  of  a  certain  amount  of  German  will 
involve  fewer  difficulties,  and  the  boy  may 
enter  college  or  the  scientific  school  with  a  good 
reading  knowledge,  and  perhaps  something 
more,  of  both  of  these  indispensable  keys  to 
culture;  or  he  may  postpone  the  second  modern 
language  until  the  college  period  is  entered 
upon.  There  are  now  reasons  of  practical  im- 
portance and  convenience  why  Spanish  should 
be  taught  in  American  secondary  schools,  par- 
ticularly in  view  of  the  rapidly  developing  rela- 
tions— business,  social,  and  political — with  the 
other  American  republics. 

7.  Drazving   and   Constructive    Work — To  in-  Drawing  and 
troduce  this  subject  generally  into  the  secon-  J^*""*™ 
dary  schools  of  this  country  would  be  a  new 


254    SECONDARY  SCHOOL  PROGRAMME 

departure.  It  is  so,  however,  only  because 
these  schools  have  not  been  doing  their  duty 
by  the  pupils  intrusted  to  them.  Taken  to- 
gether, drawing  and  constructive  work  con- 
stitute what  is  properly  called  manual  training, 
the  educational  value  of  which  has  been  estab- 
lished beyond  all  contravention  both  by  argu- 
ment and  by  experiment.  It  aims  to  develop 
in  the  pupil  powers  of  thought-expression  that 
no  other  study  reaches,  as  well  as  to  train  the 
judgment,  to  call  out  the  executive  powers, 
and  to  give  self-confidence  in  dealing  with 
actual  material.  It  serves  also  to  illustrate 
much  of  the  instruction  in  mathematics  and 
in  natural  science.  Many  secondary  school 
pupils  may  wish  to  follow  manual  training  be- 
yond the  mere  rudiments,  and  with  more  espe- 
cial reference  to  its  scientific  and  technological 
applications. 

It  may  be  added,  for  the  sake  of  definite- 
ness,  that  the  constructive  work  will  naturally 
employ  for  its  material  pasteboard,  clay,  soft 
wood,  and  metal  successively.  It  is  at  this 
point  in  particular  that  vocational  prepara- 
tion will  make  its  appearance  in  the  field  of 
secondary  education.  According  as  these  topics 
of  drawing  and  constructive  work  are  more 
completely  developed  and  emphasized,  so  will 


SECONDARY  SCHOOL  PROGRAMME     255 

the  secondary  school  take  on  more  and  more 
the  characteristics  of  an  institution  having  in 
view  preparation  for  various  practical  activi- 
ties. 

8.  Physical  Training — For  obvious  reasons  Physical 
this  important  subject  finds  a  place  in  every  traimng 
part  of  the  course.  More  time  is  to  be  allotted 
to  it  in  the  earlier  years  because  at  that  time 
the  pupil  is  less  accustomed  to  the  confinement 
of  the  schoolroom  and  to  the  strain  of  con- 
tinuous mental  exertion.  At  this  stage,  too, 
important  physical  habits  are  formed,  for  in- 
stance those  of  breathing,  walking,  and  sitting; 
and  when  formed  correctly  they  reduce  some- 
what the  time  necessary  for  systematic  bodily 
training.  Whenever  possible  this  physical 
training  might  be  given  in  the  open  air  of  a 
playground.  Such  an  arrangement  not  only 
involves  a  change  of  surroundings  and  conse- 
quent rest  for  the  pupil,  but  it  means  purer 
air  in  the  lungs,  purer  blood  in  the  veins,  and 
an  accompanying  exhilaration  that  is  in  itself 
a  powerful  tonic,  mental  and  physical.  A 
valuable  and  indeed  indispensable  accessory  of 
physical  training  is  play,  the  free,  unimpeded, 
wilful  activity  of  the  child.  So  great  is  its  value 
that  many  are  of  opinion  that  it  makes  syste- 
matic physical  training  unnecessary.     On  this 


256    SECONDARY  SCHOOL  PROGRAMME 

point  I  shall  merely  quote  Doctor  Hartwell, 
who  seems  to  me  to  have  correctly  expressed 
the  relation  between  play  and  systematic  exer- 
cise in  his  admirable  address  before  the  Physical 
Training  Conference  held  in  Boston  in  Novem- 
ber, 1889.  Doctor  Hartwell,  in  speaking  of 
this  matter,  said: 

I  have  no  disposition  to  disparage  athletic  sports.  I 
would  that  they  were  more  general  and  better  regulated 
than  they  are  in  our  country.  I  believe  that  they  are 
valuable  as  a  means  of  recreation;  that  they  conduce  to 
bodily  growth  and  improvement;  and  that  their  moral 
effects  are  of  value,  since  they  call  for  self-subordination, 
public  spirit,  and  co-operative  effort,  and  serve  to  reveal 
the  dominant  characteristics  and  tendencies,  as  regards 
the  temper,  disposition,  and  force  of  will  of  those  who 
engage  in  them.  But  they  bear  so  indelibly  the  marks 
of  their  childish  origin,  they  are  so  crude  and  unspecialized 
as  to  their  methods,  as  to  render  them  inadequate  for  the 
purposes  of  a  thorough-going  and  broad  system  of  bodily 
education.  It  is  well  to  promote  them,  and  it  is  becom- 
ing increasingly  necessary  to  regulate  them;  but  it  is 
unsafe  and  short-sighted  to  consider  them  as  constituting 
anything  more  than  a  single  stage  in  the  best  bodily 
training. 

When  play  and  physical  training  are  thus 
carefully  distinguished,  each  is  seen  to  have 
an  educational  function  of  its  own  and  neither 
will  be  substituted  for  the  other.  Both  are 
necessary  in  education. 


SECONDARY  SCHOOL  PROGRAMME     257 

It  is  believed  that  a  course  made  up  of  these 
nine  lines  of  study  well  distributed  will  meet 
all  the  intellectual  wants  of  the  boy  from  his 
eleventh  to  his  eighteenth  year,  and  will  afford 
him  a  harmonious  and  complete  training. 
Whether  the  pupil  enters  an  institution  of 
higher  grade  or  not,  he  will  have  had  an  edu- 
cation substantially  complete  in  itself.  Yet 
for  the  studies  of  a  higher  institution  he  will 
have  received  an  admirable  preparation.  The 
secondary  school  is  in  this  way  enabled  to 
preserve  its  place  in  the  general  educational 
organization  of  the  country  without  sacrificing 
its  independence. 

No  less  a  man  than  Darwin  has  recorded  the  The 
fact  that  his  school-days,  so  far  as  his  educa-  ^001  and 
tion  was  concerned,  were  an  utter  blank.    Not  life 
infrequently  men   of  less   reputation,   but  yet 
prominent  in  their  respective  callings,  express 
a  similar  opinion.     This  in  itself  is  a  danger- 
signal,  and  must  be  heeded.     The  school  may 
not  with  impunity  remain  long  out  of  touch 
with  the  spirit  which  animates  the  intellectual 
leaders  of  an  age  or  generation.    Its  task  grows 
more  difficult  as  civilization  grows  more  com- 
plex.    "The  most  incessant  occupation  of  the 
human    intellect    throughout   life,"    said    John 
Stuart  Mill  in  his  inaugural  address  as  rector 


258    SECONDARY  SCHOOL  PROGRAMME 

of  St.  Andrews  University,  "is  the  ascertain- 
ment of  truth."  The  standards  of  truth  and 
the  methods  for  its  discovery  must  be  revealed 
in  and  by  the  process  of  education.  When  this 
process  has  been  carried  so  far  as  to  entitle  the 
resulting  education  to  be  called  liberal,  as 
Huxley  for  example  has  defined  a  liberal  educa- 
tion, the  youth  is  prepared  to  live  not  for  him- 
self alone,  but  for  the  society  of  which  he  forms 
a  part  and  for  the  race  of  which  he  is  a  member. 
If  the  secondary  school  fails  to  obtain  this 
larger  view,  its  training  will  hardly  contribute 
to  an  education  which  shall  be,  in  the  language 
of  Rollin,  "the  source  of  certain  peace  and 
happiness  both  in  the  family  and  in  the  state." 


XIII 

THE  AMERICAN  COLLEGE  AND  THE 
AMERICAN  UNIVERSITY 


An  Introduction  to  Paulsen's  German  Universities,  Their 
Character  and  Historical  Development  (New  York, 
1895) 


THE  AMERICAN  COLLEGE  AND  THE 
AMERICAN  UNIVERSITY 

Nowhere,  outside  of  the  German-speaking 
countries  themselves,  have  the  German  uni- 
versities been  so  highly  appreciated  and  so 
widely  imitated  as  in  the  United  States.  Just 
as  the  historic  American  college  traces  its  ori- 
gin in  direct  line  to  Oxford  and  Cambridge 
and  their  influence,  so  the  new  American  uni- 
versity represents,  to  a  remarkable  degree,  the 
influence  and  authority  of  the  academic  tradi- 
tions of  Heidelberg  and  Gottingen,  of  Leipsic 
and  Berlin. 

The  distinction  between  the  function  of  the  Distinction 
college  and  that  of  the  university,  which  be-  be*ween 

J  7  college  and 

comes  clearer  day  by  day  to  the  student  of  university 
education,  has  thus  far  proved  too  subtle  to 
reach  the  understanding  and  too  commonplace 
to  satisfy  the  pride  of  the  American  people; 
for  the  existing  terminology  inextricably  con- 
fuses colleges  and  universities,  and  sometimes 
even    institutions    that    are    little    more    than 

secondary    schools,    and    it    taxes  the  patience 

261 


262        THE  AMERICAN  COLLEGE  AND 

and  skill  of  the  expert  to  disentangle  them.  If 
we  cut  the  Gordian  knot  by  allowing  every  in- 
stitution founded  for  any  form  or  phase  of 
higher  education  to  classify  itself  by  the  name 
that  it  assumes,  then  there  are  no  fewer  than 
134  universities  in  the  United  States.1  Of 
these,  7  are  in  Illinois  (although  the  new  Uni- 
versity of  Chicago  was  not  included  in  the 
enumeration  of  1 890-1),  8  are  in  Kansas,  14  are 
in  Ohio,  9  are  in  Tennessee  (of  which  total  the 
city  of  Nashville  alone,  with  about  80,000  in- 
habitants, contributes  3),  8  are  in  Texas,  and 
4  are  in  the  city  of  New  Orleans.  When  this 
surprising  number  is  compared  with  the  total 
of  20  universities  for  the  whole  German  Em- 
pire, it  is  evident,  without  further  investiga- 
tion, that  there  is  some  difference  in  standard 
between  the  two  countries,  and  that  to  be  a 
university  in  fact  is  something  more  than  to 
be  a  university  in  name. 

According  to  another  extreme  view,  there 
are  no  American  universities  whatever.  Only 
two  years  ago  so  distinguished  an  authority  as 
Professor  von  Hoist,  formerly  of  Freiburg  but 
now  attached  to  the  University  of  Chicago, 
said:2 

1  Report  of  the  Commissioner  of  Education,  189O-I,  pp.  1398- 

I4I3- 
1  Educational  Review  (1893),  V,  113. 


THE  AMERICAN  UNIVERSITY        263 
"There  is  in  the  United  States  as  yet  not  a  Are  there 

American 
universities? 


single  university  in  the  sense  attached  to  the 


word  by  Europeans.  All  the  American  insti- 
tutions bearing  this  name  are  either  compounds 
of  college  and  university — the  university,  as  an 
aftergrowth,  figuring  still  to  some  extent  as  a 
kind  of  annex  or  excrescence  of  the  college — 
or  hybrids  of  college  and  university,  or,  finally, 
a  torso  of  a  university.  An  institution  wholly 
detached  from  the  school  work  done  by  col- 
leges, and  containing  all  the  four  faculties 
organically  connected  to  a  Universitas  literarumy 
does  not  exist." 

Inasmuch  as  there  is  no  common  agreement 
among  Europeans  as  to  what  the  term  "uni- 
versity" means — as  may  readily  be  seen  by 
contrasting  the  University  of  Oxford  with  the 
University  of  France,  and  either  or  both  with 
the  University  of  Berlin — Professor  von  Hoist 
obviously  meant  by  European,  German;  and 
his  definition  of  a  university  bears  out  this 
interpretation.  With  this  limitation  his  judg- 
ment may  be  accepted  as  technically  correct; 
but  it  rests  upon  two  false  assumptions:  (1) 
that  exact  reproductions  of  the  German  uni- 
versities should  be  developed  in  the  United 
States,  and  that  until  this  development  takes 
place  there  will  be  no  American  universities; 


264        THE  AMERICAN  COLLEGE  AND 

and  (2)  that  the  American  college  is  to  be 
classed  with  the  German  gymnasium  as  a  sec- 
ondary school.  Into  these  two  blunders  those 
observers  of  American  educational  organiza- 
tion who  occupy  the  exclusively  German  point 
of  view  habitually  fall;  and  in  more  than  one 
instance  the  truest  and  most  natural  develop- 
ment of  higher  education  in  America  has  been 
impeded  and  retarded  by  the  attempt,  on  the 
part  of  those  who  share  Professor  von  Hoist's 
errors,  to  force  that  development  into  the  ex- 
act channels  worn  by  German  precedent. 

The  American  university  may,  or  rather 
must,  learn  the  lessons  that  its  German  prede- 
cessor has  to  teach,  but  it  should  be  expected 
to  develop  also  characteristics  peculiar  to  it- 
self. In  order  to  become  great — indeed,  in 
order  to  exist  at  all — a  university  must  rep- 
resent the  national  life  and  minister  to  it. 
When  the  universities  of  any  country  cease 
to  be  in  close  touch  with  the  social  life  and  in- 
stitutions of  the  people,  and  fail  to  yield  to 
the  efforts  of  those  who  would  readjust  them, 
their  days  of  influence  are  numbered.  The 
same  is  true  of  any  system  of  educational 
organization.  For  this  reason  alone,  if  for  no 
other,  an  educational  organization  closely  fol- 
lowing the  German  type  would  not  thrive  in 


THE  AMERICAN  UNIVERSITY         265 

America;  indeed,  with  all  its  undisputed  ex- 
cellences, the  German  system  would  not  meet 
our  needs  so  well  as  the  yet  unsystematic,  but 
remarkably  effective,  organization  that  cir- 
cumstances have  brought  into  existence.  There- 
fore Professor  von  Hoist  is  not  likely  at  any  time 
to  see  a  single  university  in  the  United  States, 
if  he  persists  in  giving  to  that  word  its  technical 
German  significance.  But  using  the  word  in  a  Definition  of 
broader,  and,  I  believe,  a  truer  sense — the  sense  a  umversity 
that,  while  not  confounding  it  with  a  college, 
however  large  or  however  ancient,  nor  apply- 
ing it  mistakenly  to  a  college  and  a  surrounding 
group  of  technical  and  professional  faculties 
or  schools,  yet  extends  the  term  to  include 
any  institution  where  students,  adequately 
trained  by  previous  study  of  the  liberal  arts  and 
sciences,  are  led  into  special  fields  of  learning 
and  research  by  teachers  of  high  excellence 
and  originality;  and  where,  by  the  agency  of 
libraries,  museums,  laboratories,  and  publica- 
tions, knowledge  is  conserved,  advanced,  and 
disseminated— ^in  this  sense  one  may  perhaps 
count  six  or  eight  American  universities  in 
existence  to-day,  and  half  as  many  more  in 
the  process  of  making. 

To  confuse  the  American   college  with   the 
German   gymnasium   is   inexcusable.     Neither 


266        THE  AMERICAN  COLLEGE  AND 

African         *  ^^  colIege  like  Princeton,   nor  a  smaller 
couege*11        pne  like  Williams  or  Bowdoin,   can  be  imag- 
ined  as  part  of  the  gymnasial  system.     The 
American  college  is,  in  the  phrase  of  Tacitus, 
tantum  sui  similis;    neither  the   English  pub- 
lic school,  the  French  lycee,  nor  the  German 
gymnasium,  is  its  counterpart.     Its  free  stu- 
dent-life  and   broad   range   of  studies   liken  it 
in  some  degree  to  a  university;   but  the  imma- 
turity of  its  students,  the  necessarily  didactic 
character  of  most  of  the  work  of  its  instruc- 
tors, and  the  end  that  it  has  in  view  mark  it 
off  as  belonging  to  a  different  type.     The  col- 
lege has  proved  to  be  well  suited  to  the  demands 
of  American  life  and  to  be  a  powerful  force  in 
American   civilization    and    culture.      Its   use- 
fulness   is   in   nowise    impaired   or   its   dignity 
lessened  now  that  the  university,  with  a  wholly 
different  aim  and  a  totally  different  set  of  prob- 
lems to  solve,  has  grown  up  by  its  side.     As 
President  Hyde,  of  Bowdoin  College,  has  truly 
and    forcibly    said:1     "For    combining    sound 
scholarship  with   solid   character;    for  making 
men   both    intellectually    and    spiritually   free; 
for  uniting  the  pursuit  of  truth  with  reverence 
for  duty,  the  small  college  [and  the  large  as 
well],  open  to  the  worthy  graduates  of  every 

1  Educational  Review  (1891),  II,  320,  321. 


THE  AMERICAN  UNIVERSITY         267 

good  high  school,  presenting  a  course  suf- 
ficiently rigid  to  give  symmetrical  develop- 
ment and  sufficiently  elastic  to  encourage  in- 
dividuality along  congenial  lines,  taught  by 
professors  who  are  men  first  and  scholars  after- 
ward, governed  by  kindly  personal  influence 
and  secluded  from  too  frequent  contact  with 
social  distractions,  has  a  mission  which  no 
change  of  educational  conditions  can  take 
away,  and  a  policy  which  no  sentiment  of 
vanity  or  jealousy  should  be  permitted  to  turn 
aside." 

In  1891  there  was  one  student  enrolled  in  a  The  college 
college  of  the  liberal  arts  and  sciences  for  every  pop 
1,363  inhabitants  of  the  United  States.1  Count- 
ing five  persons  to  a  family,2  this  means  that 
one  family  in  every  272.6,  the  country  over, 
contributed  to  the  college  population.  Of 
course,  in  some  sections  of  the  country  the 
ratio  was  much  less.  In  Massachusetts,  for 
example,  there  was  one  college  student  for 
every  858  of  population,  or  one  for  every  171. 6 
families.  In  Iowa  the  proportion  was  one  to 
908  persons,  or  18 1.6  families;  in  Utah,  one 
to  789  persons,  or  157.8  families.  These  statis- 
tics, read  in  relation  to  the  vast  extent  of  the 

1  Report  of  the  Commissioner  of  Education,  1890-1,  p.  827. 

2  The  actual  ratio  in  the  United  States  in  1890  was  4.93  (see 
Abstract  of  the  Eleventh  Census,  1890,  p.  54). 


268        THE  AMERICAN  COLLEGE  AND 

territory  of  the  United  States  and  to  the 
heterogeneousness  of  its  population  of  70,000,- 
000,  are  ample  proof,  if  proof  were  needed, 
that  the  college  is  a  very  familiar  feature  in 
American  life,  and  that  it  supplies  the  educa- 
tional needs  of  the  people  to  a  remarkable 
degree. 
The  college  Of  the  481   American  colleges,   perhaps  no 

p^°^mne  two  have  precisely  the  same  course  of  study 
or  the  same  equipment;  but  the  common 
features  that  distinguish  them  are  well  known, 
(ihe  ancient  classics,  mathematics,  the  English 
language  and  literature,  the  modern  European 
languages,  the  natural  sciences,  economics,  and 
philosophy  are  doubtless  represented  to  some 
extent  in  every  college  curriculum  ;v  yet  every 
phase  of  educational  opinion  and  every  variety 
of  local  interest  are  represented  in  the  details 
of  their  arrangement.  But  we  may  be  sure 
that  wherever  it  is  found,  whether  on  the 
Atlantic  seaboard,  in  some  inland  town  of  the 
West  or  South,  or  on  the  Pacific  slope,  the 
college  is  a  force  making  for  a  broader  intel- 
lectual life  and  a  higher  type  of  citizenship. 
It  leaves  to  the  university  the  task  of  educat- 
ing specialists,  investigators,  and  scientifically 
trained  members  of  the  learned  professions. 
The  diversity  of  the  college  when  contrasted 


THE  AMERICAN  UNIVERSITY         260 

with  the  uniformity  of  the  gymnasium  makes 
it  plain  that  the  American  university  does  not 
rest  upon  any  uniform  and  closely  controlled 
foundation.     American   students   come  to   the 
university    with    very    varied    preparation    in 
knowledge   and  training.     But   if  the  healthy 
forces  recently  set  at  work  in  the  field  of  Amer- 
ican higher  education  bring  about  their  legiti- 
mate  results,  the   efficiency  of  the  university 
and  its  power  for  good  will  be  distinctly  in- 
creased rather  than  diminished  by  the  fact  that 
its  students  are  not  all  cast  in  a  common  mould. 
The  principles  of  the  limited  election  of  studies 
and  of  the  adaptation  of  the  curriculum  to  the 
pupil,  rather  than  the  pupil  to  the  curriculum, 
are   as  sound  when   applied  in  the  secondary 
school  as  in  the  college,  and  the  scope  of  their 
application  widens  year  by  year.     The  Amer- 
ican college  graduate  who  desires  a  university 
career  is  thus  enabled  to  enter  upon  it  a  broadly 
and  liberally  educated  man,  with  tastes  formed 
and   aptitudes  developed,   ready  to  undertake 
with  immediate  advantage  the  specialized  work 
for   the   sake   of  which   the   university   exists. 
He  is  much  more  widely,  though  certainly  less 
minutely,  trained  than  the  German  Abiturient. 
In  one  very  important  respect  the  American 
system  of  higher  education  is  distinctly  supe- 


270       THE  AMERICAN  COLLEGE  AND 


Higher 
education  in 
America  and 
in  Germany 


rior  to  the  German.  In  Germany  a  clear-cut 
dividing  line  between  the  gymnasium  and  the 
university  is  drawn  by  the  complete  and  care- 
fully preserved  difference  in  method,  in  spirit, 
and  in  ideal  that  exists  between  them.  The 
contrast  between  the  narrowness  of  the  gym- 
nasium and  the  generous  freedom  of  the  uni- 
versity is  very  sharp,  and  many  a  university 
student  loses  his  balance  entirely,  or  wastes 
much  precious  time  and  force,  in  adjusting 
himself  to  his  totally  new  surroundings.  In 
America,  on  the  contrary,  the  college  and  the 
university  sometimes  exist  side  by  side  in  the 
same  corporation,  as  at  Harvard,  Johns  Hop- 
kins, Columbia,  and  Chicago,  and  the  work  of 
the  one  passes  gradually  and  insensibly  into 
that  of  the  other.  Even  when,  as  is  generally 
the  case,  the  college  exists  as  a  thing  apart, 
the  later  years  of  its  course  of  study  are  so 
organized  and  conducted  as  to  make  the  transi- 
tion from  college  to  university  easy  and  natural. 
This  practise  is  sound  in  psychology,  sound  in 
economics,  and  sound  in  common  sense.  Its 
practical  success  is  amply  demonstrated  by  the 
fact  that  there  is  no  American  university — un- 
less that  name  be  given  to  the  few  partially 
developed  departments  of  study  represented 
at  Worcester,  Massachusetts— that  is  not  in  the 
closest  relation  to  a  college  which  is  a  member 


THE  AMERICAN  UNIVERSITY         271 

of  the  same  corporation.  The  institutions  that 
to  Professor  von  Hoist  are  "compounds  of  col- 
lege and  university"  are,  therefore,  not,  as  he 
evidently  thinks,  compounds  of  gymnasium 
and  university,  but  the  peculiar  product  of 
the  American  educational  organization  and 
its  peculiar  strength. 

But  though  the  foundation  on  which  uni- 
versity work  in  America  rests  differs  and  will 
continue  to  differ  from  that  provided  in  Ger- 
many by  a  uniform  system  of  state-controlled 
gymnasiums,  the  university  itself  is  essentially 
the   same;    indeed,   its  organization   has   been 
effected  largely  by   men  who  had   studied   in 
the  German  universities,   and  who  desired  to 
develop  in  the  United  States  a  similar  vehicle 
for  the  highest  form  of  the  scientific  activity 
of  the  nation.     The  three  fundamental  princi- 
ples that  the  German  universities  have  estab- 
lished   and   brilliantly    illustrated,  Lehrfreiheit, 
Lernfreiheit,  and  the  pursuit  of  science  for  its 
own  sake,  are  fully  recognized  in  the  American 
universities;    although  it  cannot  be  said  that 
the  third  principle  is  as  fully  lived  up  to  as  it 
ought   to  be.      Professor   Paulsen   has   himself 
pointed   out   in   his  latest   publication   on   the 
subject1  that  the  peculiar  character  of  the  Ger- 
man university  lies  in  the  fact  that  it  closely 

1  Deutsche  Rundschau,  September,  1894. 


272        THE  AMERICAN  COLLEGE  AND 

connects  research  and  teaching.  At  present 
complaint  is  made  that  the  one  aim,  research, 
is  too  largely  pursued  at  the  expense  of  the 
other,  with  the  undoubted  result,  as  a  German 
university  professor  admits,1  that,  considered 
merely  as  teaching  institutions,  the  American 
universities  surpass  the  German  in  efficiency. 
The  emphasis  often  laid  on  teaching,  at  the 
Teaching  and    expense  of  research,  in  the  American  universi- 

research  tjeg    jg    Jargely    (Jue   t0    tne    fact    tnat   tne   older 

generation  of  American  university  professors 
are  men  who  were  for  many  years  engaged  in 
the  work  of  purely  collegiate  teaching,  and 
they  have  neither  outgrown  nor  cast  off  the 
habits  and  methods  of  years,  nor  combined  re- 
search with  teaching  in  any  marked  degree. 
This,  of  course,  is  quite  as  much  to  be  depre- 
cated as  an  exaggeration  of  the  opposite  ten- 
dency. The  younger  generation  of  university 
teachers,  however,  a  large  proportion  of  whom 
have  been  trained  in  Germany,  combine  re- 
search with  teaching  in  almost  every  instance; 
though,  happily,  research  is  not  yet  reduced 
to  work  with  "the  lens,  electrode,  test-tube, 
and  psychometer,"  which  apparently  seems  to 
Doctor  G.   Stanley  Hall  to  cover  the  field  of 

1  Professor  Hugo  Munsterberg,  quoted  in  Educational  Review 
(1894),  VII,  204. 


THE  AMERICAN  UNIVERSITY         273 

possible  investigation.1  It  is  possible,  of  course, 
in  the  enthusiastic  devotion  to  research  to  over- 
look entirely  or  to  minimize  the  need  of  good 
teaching  in  universities,  and  also  to  exaggerate 
the  influence  of  research  in  producing  good 
teachers;  but  from  present  indications,  this  is 
not  a  source  of  immediate  danger  in  the  United 
States.  Our  wisest  university  teachers  are  in 
agreement  with  Virchow,  who  said  recently2 
that  the  aim  of  university  study  is  "general 
scientific  and  moral  culture  together  with  the 
mastery  of  one  special  department  of  study." 
The  main  obstacle  to  the  full  establishment 
in  America  of  the  pursuit  of  science  for  its  own  The  technical 

1  ,,-  .  ....      school  in  the 

sake,  as  a  controlling  university  principle,  is  univerSity 
the  development  and  rapid  growth  of  technical 
schools,  with  low  standards  of  entrance,  in  con- 
nection with  universities,  and  their  admission 
to  a  full  and  even  controlling  share  in  univer- 
sity legislation  and  administration.  Indeed,  in 
this  lies  the  chief  danger  to  the  integrity  of 
American  university  development.  Thus  far 
the  Johns  Hopkins  University  has  escaped 
these  influences  entirely,  and  Harvard  Uni- 
versity  and    Columbia   University   have   been 

1  Sec   "Research  the  Vital  Spirit  of  Teaching,"    The  Forum, 
August,  1894. 

-  Lernen  und  Forschen  (Berlin,  1892),  p.  8. 


274       THE  AMERICAN  COLLEGE  AND 

able  to  hold  them  in  check.  But  at  some  other 
institutions  they  are  strong  and  menacing. 
The  danger  consists  in  allowing  the  claim  that 
closely  specialized  work  in  a  purely  technical  or 
professional  branch,  entered  upon  without  any 
broad  preparatory  training  whatever,  is  to  be 
regarded  as  legitimate  university  work  and  en- 
titled to  the  time-honored  university  recogni- 
tion and  rewards.  It  need  hardly  be  pointed 
out  to  the  intelligent  reader  that  the  tendency 
to  do  this  is  under  full  headway  in  the  United 
States,  and  that  its  essential  narrowness  and 
philistinism  increase  with  its  success  in  estab- 
lishing itself.  The  general  public  attribute 
unmerited  scientific  importance  to  technical 
schools  established  in  connection  with  colleges 
and  universities  because  of  their  large  enrol- 
ment; and  governing  boards  look  upon  them 
with  favor  both  because  of  the  influence  they 
exert  through  their  graduates  and  because  they 
are  often  important  sources  of  revenue.  Both 
facts  tend  to  divert  attention  and  funds  from 
the  pursuit  of  science  as  an  end  in  itself,  and 
to  keep  that  principle  from  controlling  univer- 
sity policy  as  it  should.  The  difficulty  would 
be  diminished,  and  perhaps  removed,  if  these 
technical  schools  (law,  medicine,  technology, 
and  the  like)  were  put  upon  a  true  university 


THE  AMERICAN  UNIVERSITY         275 

basis  by  insisting  upon  a  liberal  education  as 
a  prerequisite  for  admission  to  them.  This 
would  bring  about  a  condition  analogous  to 
that  which  prevails  in  Germany,  and  would 
raise  the  American  universities  to  a  plane  that 
they  have  never  yet  occupied.  For  there  are 
as  yet  very  few  professional  schools  in  Amer- 
ica of  full  university  rank.  Most  professional 
and  technical  schools  admit  to  their  courses 
and  degrees  immature  students  who  have  had 
only  a  partial  secondary  school  training,  or 
often  no  training  at  all.  When  such  a  state 
of  affairs  exists  within  a  university  organiza- 
tion, it  is  apparent  that  the  technical  or  pro- 
fessional schools  are  an  injury  rather  than  a 
legitimate  source  of  pride  and  strength,  no 
matter  how  many  hundreds  of  students  they 
may  attract.  Indeed,  the  larger  they  become 
the  greater  is  their  influence  for  evil,  for  their 
teaching  is  necessarily  brought  down  to  the 
level  of  the  least-trained  intelligences  among 
the  heterogeneous  body  of  students,  and  in  this 
way  the  standard  of  the  whole  university  is 
lowered. 

So  far  as  this  tendency  exists  in  the  case  of  Schools  of 
schools  of  applied  science,  it  must  be  confessed  ^fence 
that  its  existence  is  largely  due  to  the  attitude 
of  the  partisans  of  the  old-fashioned  uniform 


276        TEE  AMERICAN  COLLEGE  AND 


Schools  of 
law  and  of 
medicine 


college  course.  By  refusing  to  mathematical 
and  scientific  studies  an  equal  place  by  the  side 
of  Greek  and  Latin,  they  forced  the  schools  of 
science  to  establish  themselves — in  many  cases 
on  the  narrowest  possible  educational  basis — 
outside  of  the  college  and  in  competition  with 
it;  when,  with  a  broad  and  generous  treatment 
of  the  problems  involved,  the  scientific  or  tech- 
nical course  might  have  been  grafted  on  the 
college  in  a  way  that  would  have  been  of  in- 
estimable value  both  to  the  technical  school 
and  to  the  college,  and  greatly  to  the  advantage 
of  the  cause  of  liberal  education.  The  time 
when  this  could  have  been  accomplished  easily 
is  past;  but  it  can  yet  be  brought  about  if 
undertaken  in  the  right  spirit  and  with  wisdom. 
It  is  seemingly  impossible  for  universities 
generally  to  raise  their  schools  of  law  and 
medicine  to  university  rank  in  the  face  of 
public  indifference  as  to  the  educational  quali- 
fications of  lawyers  and  physicians.  How  long 
this  indifference  will  continue  unmoved,  there 
are  no  means  of  determining.  Here  and  there 
efforts  are  making  to  insist  upon  some  portion, 
at  least,  of  a  secondary  education  as  a  quali- 
fication for  admission  to  schools  of  law  and 
medieine.  But  as  a  rule  admission  to  the  prac- 
tise of  those  professions  is  open  to  any  one, 


THE  AMERICAN  UNIVERSITY         277 

however  ignorant,  who  will  serve  a  short  term 
of  apprenticeship.  This  arrangement  is  some- 
times defended  on  the  ground  that  many  men 
have  in  the  past  greatly  distinguished  them- 
selves as  lawyers  or  physicians,  though  with- 
out any  liberal  education  whatever.  This  is 
true,  but  they  were  rare  exceptions;  and  they 
become  rarer  each  year  as  competition  grows 
closer  and  more  pressing.  So  far  as  law,  at 
least,  is  concerned,  one  reason  for  the  prevail- 
ing laxity  may  be  found  in  the  fact  that  this 
profession  offers  the  easiest  mode  of  entrance 
into  politics;  and  to  engage  in  that  field  of 
activity  is  often  a  chief  aim  in  the  minds  of 
many  young  men  who  have  no  desire  for  a 
liberal  education.  But  whatever  public  opinion 
may  rest  satisfied  with,  it  seems  indisputable 
that  universities  owe  it  to  themselves  to  put 
their  stamp  upon  no  graduates  in  law,  medicine, 
and  technology  who  are  not  liberally  educated 
men. 

When  the  technical  and  professional  schools  The  unity  of 
shall  have  been  raised  to  true  university  rank,  UI^verseity 
one  series  of  problems  will  be  solved;  but 
others  will  remain.  It  is  as  necessary  in  Amer- 
ica, as  Paulsen  describes  it  t;o  be  in  Germany, 
to  conserve  the  unity  of  the  university  about 
the  historic  faculty  of  philosophy  as  a  centre. 


278        THE  AMERICAN  COLLEGE  AND 


A<&  • 


This  faculty  is  at  once  the  essence  of  a  uni- 
versity and  its  true  glory.  Standing  alone  it 
may  justify  the  title  university,  as  the  history 
of  the  Johns  Hopkins  University  for  twenty 
years  amply  demonstrates.  But  to  make  it  sub- 
ordinate or  to  keep  it  weak  and  unimportant, 
whether  by  subdivision  or  other  means,  is  to 
sap  the  university's  life-blood.  The  faculty  of 
philosophy  represents,  when  undivided,  the 
unity  of  knowledge  and  the  true  catholicity  of 
scholarly  investigation.  Through  it  each  de- 
partment of  study  is  kept  in  sympathy  with 
its  fellows,  and  each  strengthens  and  supports 
the  rest.  When  dissevered,  its  parts  tend  to 
become  mere  Fachschulen;  and  the  highest 
ideals  of  university  life  are  sacrificed.  No 
stronger  evidence  in  support  of  this  opinion 
can  be  cited  than  the  emphatic  statements  on 
the  subject  made  by  du  Bois-Reymond,  the 
physiologist,  and  by  Hofmann,  the  chemist, 
in  their  inaugural  addresses  on  assuming  the 
rectorship  of  the  University  of  Berlin  in  1869 
and  1880,  respectively.  These  are  the  words 
of  du  Bois-Reymond:  "The  philosophical  fac- 
ulty forms  the  connecting-link  between  the 
remaining  faculties.  .  .  .  The  reciprocal  ac- 
tion of  the  different  branches  of  human  knowl- 
edge which  takes  place  within  the  philosophical 


THE  AMERICAN  UNIVERSITY         279 

faculty,  would  naturally  be  lost  with  its  divi- 
sion, but  this  mutual  influence  contributes 
very  much  to  widen  the  vision  of  the  individ- 
ual, and  to  preserve  in  him  a  right  judgment  of 
his  position  in  relation  to  the  whole.  The  two 
divisions  of  the  faculty  would  finally  approach 
the  character  of  special  schools;  the  ideal 
stamp  of  the  whole  would  be  destroyed."1 
And  eleven  years  later  Hofmann  defended  the 
same  position  with  equal  vigor. 

The  faculty  of  philosophy,  or  of  arts  and 
sciences,  must  not  only  be  preserved  in  its 
integrity,  but  its  spirit  must  dominate  the 
whole  university.  As  has  recently  been  offi- 
cially pointed  out:2  "The  safety  of  the  uni- 
versity spirit  demands  that  the  university 
proper  [the  faculty  of  philosophy]  be  counted 
as  one  part,  and  the  collected  schools  [tech- 
nical and  professional]  together  as  another 
rather  than  that  each  professional  and  technical 
faculty  shall  claim  a  co-ordinate  right  with 
the  foundation  faculty,  which  would  thus  be 
made,  not  a  half,  but  a  seventh  (or  possibly 
one-twentieth,  as  the  schools  multiplied)  of 
the  university  which  but  for  it  could  have  no 
real   existence."     This   is   still   another   lesson 

1  Ueber  Universitats-Einrichtungen  (Berlin,  1869),  p.  IS- 

2  See  Report  of  the  Secretary  of  the  University  of  the  State  of  New 
York  for  1893,  p.  176. 


28o 


THE  AMERICAN  COLLEGE 


Excessive 
specialization 
a  danger 


that   the   administrators  of  American   univer- 
sities have  yet  to  learn. 

One  other  danger,  common  to  all  universities, 
whether  German  or  American,  lies  in  the  ex- 
cessive specialization  which  is  so  often  warmly 
recommended  to  university  students.  Its  inev- 
itable result  is  loss  of  ability  to  see  things  in 
their  proper  proportions,  as  well  as  loss  of 
sympathy  with  learning  as  a  whole.  Perhaps 
the  division  of  labor  cannot  be  carried  too  far 
for  the  value  of  the  product,  but  certainly  it 
can  be  carried  too  far  for  the  good  of  the 
laborer. 

"  Denn  nur  der  grosse  Gegenstand  vermag 
Den  tiefen  Grund  der  Menschheit  aufzuregen, 
Im  engen  Kreis  verengert  sich  der  Sinn." 


Signs  are  not  wanting  that  this  narrowing  of 
view  and  of  sympathy  is  already  taking  place; 
but  the  university  has  in  the  faculty  of  philos- 
ophy the  means  to  correct  it  if  it  will.  What 
science  and  practical  life  alike  need  is  not 
narrow  men,  but  broad  men  sharpened  to  a 
point.  To  train  such  is  the  highest  function 
of  the  American  university;  and  by  its  success 
in  producing  them  must  its  efficiency  be  finally 


judged. 


/. 


' 


y>  ■■■■■■.—■■■  & 


• 


XIV 

THE    PLACE    OF    COMENIUS    IN    THE 
HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 


An  address  before  the  Department  of  Superintendence  of 
the  National  Educational  Association,  Brooklyn, 
New  York,  February  18,  1892 


THE    PLACE    OF    COMENIUS    IN    THE 
HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

Travellers  in  distant  lands  describe  rivers 
which  are  seemingly  absorbed  by  the  sandy 
desert.  They  disappear  and  leave  little  or  no 
trace  behind  them.  After  a  time,  perhaps 
many  miles  away,  the  stream  reappears.  It 
gathers  force  and  volume  with  going,  and  lends 
its  fertilizing  power  to  the  surrounding  coun- 
try. Even  when  hidden  to  view,  it  has  not 
ceased  to  exist.  Though  the  arid  wastes  have 
concealed  its  course,  its  effect  has  been  felt 
beneath  the  surface;  and  here  and  there  is  a 
green  oasis  to  mark  its  silent  path. 

Human  history  is  rich  in  analogies  to  this  Comenius 
natural  phenomenon,  and  in  Comenius  the 
history  of  education  furnishes  its  example. 
In  life  he  was  persecuted  for  his  religious  con- 
victions and  sought  after  for  his  educational 
ideas.  In  death,  he  was  neglected  and  for- 
gotten by  friends  and  foes  alike.  It  could  be 
said  of  him  as  the  Emperor  Julian  said  of  the 
Epicureans,  he  was  so  completely  stamped  out 
that  even  his  books  were  scarce.  But  the  great 
283 


284  TEE  PLACE  OF  COMENIUS 

educational  revival  of  our  century,  and  partic- 
ularly of  our  generation,  has  shed  the  bright 
light  of  scholarly  investigation  into  all  the 
dark  places,  and  to-day  at  the  three  hundredth 
anniversary  of  his  birth  the  fine  old  Moravian 
bishop  is  being  honored  wherever  teachers 
gather  together  and  wherever  education  is 
the  theme.  We  have  found  in  Comenius  the 
source  and  the  forecasting  of  much  that  in- 
spires and  directs  our  new  education. 

It  is  difficult  to  project  oneself  back  into 
a  time  when  our  present  environment — social, 
political,  material — was  in  its  infancy  and  when 
modern  invention  had  annihilated  neither  time 
nor  space.  It  is  still  more  difficult  to  give  due 
credit  to  one  who  at  such  a  time  saw  visions 
and  dreamed  dreams  that  we  have  since  real- 
ized to  the  full.  What  is  commonplace  to- 
day, was  genius  three  hundred  years  ago. 
America  was  one  hundred  years  old  when 
state  of  Comenius  was  born,  but  the  wilderness  of  the 

Europe  in        New  World  was  unbroken.    Neither  at  James- 
1592  •* 

town  nor  at  Plymouth  had  a  permanent  settle- 
ment been  established.  The  Spanish  Armada 
had  just  been  defeated,  and  the  future  of  Great 
Britain  made  secure.  Shakspere,  Spenser, 
Jonson,  and  Hooker  were  making  Elizabethan 
literature.      Francis    Bacon    was    growing    in 


IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION     285 

power  and  reputation,  but  the  climax  of  his 
career  was  yet  to  come.  Copernicus  had  done 
his  work;  but  Galileo,  Kepler,  and  Harvey 
were  still  young  men.  Montaigne  was  dying, 
and  Giordano  Bruno  was  soon  to  be  led  to  the 
stake.  Luther  had  finished  his  fight,  and  the 
shock  of  the  contest  was  felt  in  every  corner 
of  Europe.  The  universities  were  growing  in 
numbers  and  influence;  but  Descartes  and 
Newton,  with  the  secrets  of  modern  philosophy 
and  modern  science  locked  in  their  breasts, 
were  yet  unborn.  It  was  an  age  of  growth, 
of  development,  of  rapid  progress;  but  what 
we  know  as  modern  ideas  and  institutions  only 
existed  in  their  beginnings.  The  education  of 
the  people,  true  to  its  conservative  traditions, 
was  still  shackled.  Sturm,  the  typical  school- 
master of  partisan  humanism,  had  endeavored 
to  escape  the  unsatisfactory  present  by  anchor- 
ing the  school  to  the  newly  found  past. 
Rabelais  and  Montaigne  had  scoffed  and  rid- 
iculed in  vain.  Something  more  systematic  and 
constructive  than  mere  literary  criticism  of  the 
extravagances  of  humanism  was  necessary  if 
education  was  to  be  in  touch  with  the  time. 
The  impetus  to  this  constructive  work,  and 
many  far-reaching  suggestions  concerning  it, 
were  given  by  Comenius. 


286 


THE  PLACE  OF  COMENIUS 


Educational 
aim  of 

Comenius 


His  teachers 


His  own  education  was  belated  and  deficient. 
Before  it  was  concluded  his  reflective  spirit 
was  aroused,  and  Comenius  conceived  the  idea 
of  devoting  his  life  to  making  the  road  to  learn- 
ing easier  to  travel  for  those  who  were  to  come 
after  him.  This  philanthropic  enthusiasm  was 
natural  to  him  and  was  fostered  by  the  religious 
atmosphere  in  which  he  was  born  and  brought 
up.  It  grew  with  years  and  became  the  ruling 
passion  of  his  life.  At  the  close  of  his  work 
he  could  say  with  deepest  feeling:  "I  can  affirm 
from  the  bottom  of  my  heart  that  these  forty 
years  my  aim  has  been  simple  and  unpretend- 
ing, indifferent  whether  I  teach  or  be  taught, 
admonish  or  be  admonished,  willing  to  act 
the  part  of  a  teacher  of  teachers,  if  in  any- 
thing it  may  be  permitted  me  to  do  so,  and 
a  disciple  of  disciples  where  progress  may  be 
possible." 

The  intellectual  development  of  Comenius 
bears  traces,  both  in  its  character  and  its  di- 
rection, of  the  influence  of  five  men.  These 
are  the  Holstein  educational  reformer,  Ratich 
or  Ratke;  the  Irish  Jesuit,  Bateus;  the  Italian 
Dominican,  Campanella;  the  Spaniard,  Vives, 
the  friend  of  Erasmus;  the  Englishman,  Fran- 
cis Bacon.  From  Ratich  he  learned  something 
of  the   way   in   which    language-teaching,   the 


IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION     287 

whole  curriculum  of  the  time,  might  be  re- 
formed; and  from  Bateus  he  derived  both  the 
title  and  the  plan  of  his  Janua.  Campanella 
suggested  to  him  the  necessity  for  the  direct 
interrogation  of  nature  if  knowledge  was  to 
progress,  and  Vives  emphasized  for  him  from 
the  same  point  of  view  the  defects  of  contem- 
porary school  practise. 

But  it  was  Bacon's  Instauratio  Magna  that: 
opened  his  eyes  to  the  possibilities  of  our  knowl- 
edge of  nature  and  its  place  in  the  educational 
scheme.  The  combined  influence  of  Cam- 
panella, Vives,  and  Bacon  caused  him  to  throw 
off  the  traditional  scientific  methods  of  scholas- 
tic Aristotelianism,  and  to  cry  out  for  the  ob- 
servation and  induction  that  have  served  later 
generations  so  richly.  "Do  we  not  dwell  in 
the  garden  of  Nature  as  well  as  the  ancients  ?" 
he  exclaims.  "Why  should  we  not  use  our  eyes, 
ears,  and  noses  as  well  as  they  ?  And  why 
should  we  need  other  teachers  than  these  our 
senses  to  learn  to  know  the  works  of  Nature  ? 
Why,  say  I,  should  we  not,  instead  of  these 
dead  books,  lay  open  the  living  book  of  Nature, 
in  which  there  is  much  more  to  contemplate 
than  any  one  can  ever  relate,  and  the  con- 
templation of  which  brings  much  more  of 
pleasure,  as  well  as  of  profit?"    These  are  the 


288 


THE  PLACE  OF  COMENIUS 


Comeaius 
an  exile 


The 

Pansophia 


thoughts  that  underlie  the  text-books  of  Come- 
nius  and  gave  them  their  value. 

The  early  part  of  the  seventeenth  century 
was  not  a  period  when  an  aggressive  and  en- 
thusiastic reformer  like  Comenius  could  work 
in  peace  anywhere  in  western  Europe.  On 
the  Continent  the  Thirty  Years'  War  was 
raging  with  all  the  bitterness  and  cruelty  that 
a  religious  motive  develops.  In  England  the 
struggle  between  the  Stuarts  and  the  people 
was  approaching  its  crisis,  and  the  modern 
democratic  spirit  was  crouching  for  a  spring. 
Comenius  was  himself  a  follower  of  John  Huss, 
who  had  paid  for  his  principles  with  his  life 
a  century  before.  He  himself  and  his  beloved 
church  suffered  grievously  during  the  turmoil 
and  anarchy  of  the  long  struggle.  When  Ful- 
neck  was  taken  by  the  Spaniards  in  1621, 
Comenius  lost  all  that  was  dear  to  him — his 
wife  and  children,  his  manuscripts  and  his 
library.  Hence  he  was  an  exile,  wandering 
over  the  face  of  the  earth  preaching  the  gospel 
of  education.  In  Michelet's  significant  phrase, 
he  lost  his  country  and  found  the  world. 

Under  the  influence  of  Bacon,  Comenius  had 
advanced  a  stage  beyond  the  mere  desire  to 
reform  educational  method,  and  conceived  a 
plan  for  a  Pansophia,  a  vast  encyclopaedia  of 


IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION     289 

all  the  world's  learning — Bacon's  own  globus 
intellectualis.  His  aim  in  this  ambitious  work 
was  rather  practical  than  speculative.  To  be 
sure,  he  wished  to  show  that  all  departments 
of  knowledge  could  be  organized  systematically 
in  accordance  with  the  new  principles  of  method ; 
but  he  was  particularly  anxious  to  husband  the 
labors  of  scientific  investigators  all  over  the 
world  by  placing  in  their  hands  an  account  of 
all  that  was  known,  and  so  turn  their  attention 
and  energy  to  new  and  unsolved  problems.  To 
obtain  suggestions  for  this  scheme  and  as- 
sistance in  carrying  it  out,  Comenius  entered 
into  an  extensive  correspondence  with  the 
leading  men  of  science  and  patrons  of  learning 
in  every  country  of  Europe. 

He  regarded  his  educational  method  as  part  Comenius 
of  the  Pansophia  and  an  introduction  to  it. 
With  feverish  enthusiasm  he  pressed  his  proj- 
ects upon  the  attention  of  prominent  men,  and 
became  widely  celebrated  for  his  zeal,  his 
lofty  motives,  and  his  educational  propaganda. 
He  corresponded,  among  others,  with  that 
modern  Maecenas,  Samuel  Hartlib,  the  friend 
of  Milton.  Together  they  planned  for  the  es- 
tablishment of  an  academy  or  college  to  carry 
out  the  Pansophic  idea  and  to  be  the  cen- 
tre of   the  world's    scientific    advance  in    the 


290 


THE  PLACE  OF  COMENIUS 


In  Sweden 
and  in 
Hungary 


future.  In  1641  Comenius  journeyed  to  Lon- 
don, where  he  found  that  Hartlib  had  made 
him  known  to  Parliament,  and  was  in  high 
hopes  of  securing  from  the  government  an 
endowment  for  the  work.  Hartlib  had  paved 
the  way  so  cleverly  that  Comenius  would 
probably  have  succeeded  in  this  but  for  the 
political  disturbances  which  were  overshadow- 
ing everything  else  and  rapidly  plunging  Eng- 
land into  civil  war.  The  Long  Parliament  had 
little  time  to  think  of  education. 

Baffled  at  this  point,  Comenius  grasped  at 
the  next  straw,  which  was  an  invitation  to  visit 
Sweden  in  the  interest  of  his  projects.  This 
invitation  came  from  de  Geer,  a  wealthy  Dutch- 
man resident  in  Sweden,  who  remained  a  stead- 
fast friend  and  patron  while  he  lived.  In 
Sweden  Comenius  was  given  a  courteous  and 
sympathetic  hearing  by  Oxenstiern  and  the 
chancellor  of  the  University  of  Upsala;  but 
as  practical  men  they  advised  him  to  sub- 
ordinate his  Pansophia  to  the  more  pressing 
reforms  of  school  instruction.  He  did  this 
under  protest  and  only  after  some  friction,  and 
a  number  of  publications  bearing  on  methods 
of  teaching  were  the  fruit  of  his  labors  for  the 
next  seven  or  eight  years.  Then  in  1650  he 
transported  himself  to  the  recesses  of  Hungary, 


IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION     291 

in  responses  to  a  request  of  Prince  Sigismund, 
and  spent  four  years  in  writing  and  organizing 
schools  there.  Of  the  rest  of  his  life  the  greater 
part  was  passed  at  Amsterdam,  in  compar- 
ative retirement,  and  he  died  there  in  1671, 
at  the  advanced  age  of  eighty. 

The    Pansophia   of  Comenius    need    not   be  The  dream 

1  •  1        J  it 71  u  of  Comenius 

seriously  considered.  Whatever  may  have 
been  the  arguments  in  its  favor  two  hundred 
and  fifty  years  ago,  it  has  no  significance  now. 
The  printing-press,  the  telegraph,  the  rapid 
and  frequent  communication  between  nations 
and  peoples,  have  made  it  unnecessary  and 
impossible.  An  important  scientific  discovery 
is  known  in  Tokio,  Sydney,  and  Valparaiso  as 
soon  as  it  is  announced  in  New  York  or  London. 
The  dream  of  Bacon  and  Comenius  was  a  note- 
worthy one,  but  it  is  largely  owing  to  their 
own  influence  that  its  fulfilment  in  just  the 
form  they  planned  it  was  forever  postponed. 
The  world  of  learning  has  become  its  own  ■ 
Pansophia. 

The    verdict    of   the    literary    historian    on  Comenius  as 
Comenius,    as   voiced   by   Hallam,   is   that   he  ^o^era^deas 
was    a   man   of   "much    industry,    some   inge- 
nuity,  and  little  judgment."     The  student  of 
education,    however,    must    take    another    and 
much  broader  view.     In  tracing  contemporary 


292  THE  PLACE  OF  COMENIUS 

movements  and  ideas  back  to  their  sources, 
he  finds  that  a  surprisingly  large  number  of 
them  were  absorbed  from  the  progressive  ten- 
dencies of  the  time  and  formulated  for  the 
school  by  Comenius.  The  elementary  school 
course  must  be  shortened  and  enriched,  we 
say;  the  pupil  is  consuming  his  life  in  prepar- 
ing for  life,  says  Comenius.  Rote-learning 
and  mere  memory-training  are  useless,  we  hear; 
my  fundamental  principle  is  that  the  under- 
standing and  the  tongue  should  advance  in 
parallel  lines  always,  says  Comenius.  Not 
enough  time  and  care  are  devoted  to  the  teach- 
ing of  English,  it  is  said;  instruction  in  the 
mother  tongue  must  lie  at  the  basis  of  all 
else,  says  Comenius.  The  list  might  be  con- 
tinued indefinitely.  The  infant  school  or  kin- 
dergarten, female  education,  the  incorporation 
of  history  and  geography  in  the  curriculum, 
the  value  of  drawing  and  manual  training,  the 
fundamental  importance  of  sense-training,  the 
physical  and  the  ethical  elements  in  education, 
and  finally  that  education  is  for  all  and  not 
for  a  favored  few  only — were  all  articles  in  the 
creed  of  Comenius.  Yet  many  of  them  are 
far  from  universally  adopted  to-day.  Surely 
this  man  was  a  prophet ! 

The  robust   and   practical  character  of  the 


IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION     293 

proposals  of  Comenius  is  most  apparent  when  Comenius 
they  are  contrasted  with  the  educational  doc-  and  Locke 
trines  of  those  who  have  come  after  him,  partic- 
ularly Locke,  Rousseau,  Pestalozzi,  and  Froe- 
bel.  Frail  as  the  psychology  of  Comenius  was, 
it  was  truer  than  that  of  Locke.  He  knew  that 
the  human  mind  was  an  organism,  an  activity, 
a  seed  with  wonderful  potency  of  growth  and 
development,  and  not  a  mere  sheet  of  wax,  as 
the  Englishman  taught,  on  whose  passive  sur- 
face the  environment  merely  leaves  certain  im- 
pressions or  traces.  Locke's  thought  was  of 
the  education  of  the  gentleman;  Comenius 
proclaimed  that  education  was  for  the  race. 
The  single  point  in  which  Locke  corrected 
Comenius  was  in  exalting  character  rather 
than  knowledge  as  the  chief  aim  in  education. 

Of  Rousseau  one  may  say  with  Mr.  Quick:  Rousseau 
"His  writings  and  the  results  produced  by 
them  are  among  the  strangest  things  in  his- 
tory; and  especially  in  matters  of  education 
it  is  more  than  doubtful  if  the  wise  man  of  the 
world  Montaigne,  the  Christian  philanthropist 
Comenius,  or  that  'slave  of  truth  and  reason' 
Locke,  had  half  as  much  influence  as  this  de- 
praved serving-man."  Rousseau's  enthusiasm 
took  the  form  of  theory  run  mad,  and  the  prac- 
tical impossibility  of  his  educational  plans  was 


294  THE  PLACE  OF  COMENIUS 

only  exceeded  by  their  philosophical  unsound- 
ness. Comenius  had  been  himself  a  teacher 
and  an  organizer  of  schools.  He  knew  the 
practical  limitations  under  which  any  theory 
is  put  when  reduced  to  practise.  He  asked  of 
the  school  and  the  pupil  nothing  that  was  im- 
possible. He  accepted  society  as  he  found  it 
and  would  teach  it  to  reform  itself.  Rousseau, 
on  the  other  hand,  was  in  revolt  against  the 
whole  social  order.  He  would  like  to  break  all 
its  bonds  and  make  of  every  individual  a  self- 
worshipping  god. 
Pestalozzi  There  is  nothing  in  the  history  of  education 

so  touching  as  the  story  of  the  life  of  Pestalozzi. 
His  own  immortal  words,  "I  lived  like  a  beg- 
gar to  teach  beggars  to  live  like  men,"  only 
half  reveal  the  story  of  his  unwearied  patience, 
his  intense  suffering,  his  self-sacrifices  for  child- 
hood. His  life  gave  reality  to  his  half-mystical 
principle  that  "the  essential  principle  of  edu- 
cation is  not  teaching;  it  is  love."  Yet  his 
thought  is  relatively  unimportant.  Pestalozzi 
gave  himself  to  education,  but  few  new  prin- 
ciples. His  theory  of  the  value  of  intuition 
needs  to  be  carefully  supplemented,  and  his 
insistence  on  the  fact  that  education  is  de- 
velopment, a  drawing  out  and  not  a  putting 
in,  merely  repeats  the  thought  on  which  all  of 


IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION     295 

the  work  of  Comenius  was  based.  Without 
that  principle,  which  Comenius  had  made 
familiar  more  than  a  century  before,  the  work 
of  Pestalozzi  would  have  been  of  little  im- 
portance in  the  history  of  education.  Indeed, 
it  would  have  been  philanthropy  merely,  not 
education. 

Nor  does  it  detract  from  the  estimate  to  Froebel 
be  put  upon  Froebel's  teachings  to  say  that  in 
almost  every  important  particular  they  were 
built  upon  foundations  laid  by  the  Moravian 
bishop.  Froebel  himself  was  strangely  deficient 
in  masculinity  and  in  practical  capacity.  His 
exaggerated  and  absurd  symbolism  and  his 
unbalanced  religiosity  give  a  certain  curious  in- 
terest and  stimulus  to  his  doctrines,  but  add 
nothing  to  their  force  or  their  permanent  value. 
His  seed-thought  is  again  that  of  Comenius — 
educate  by  developing  the  pupil's  own  activity. 
Out  of  it  and  its  corollaries  the  new  education 
has  grown. 

The   place   of  Comenius   in   the   history   of  Comenius 

,  .  •  r  .  r  j*  and  the 

education,    therefore,    is    one    ot    commanding  modern 
importance.     He  introduces  and  dominates  the  movement 
whole  modern  movement  in  the  field   of  ele- 
mentary and  secondary  education.     His  rela- 
tion to  our  present  teaching  is  similar  to  that 
held  by  Copernicus  and  Newton  toward  mod- 


296  THE  PLACE  OF  COMENIUS 

em  science,  and  Bacon  and  Descartes  toward 
modern  philosophy.  Yet  he  was  not,  in  a  high 
sense,  an  original  mind.  But  his  spirit  was 
essentially  modern  and  remarkably  receptive. 
He  assimilated  the  ideas  that  were  inspiring 
the  new  civilization  and  applied  them  to  the 
school.  In  an  age  of  general  ignorance,  Come- 
nius  had  an  exaggerated  idea  of  the  importance 
of  mere  knowledge.  This  is  easily  understood 
and  readily  excused.  Most  of  his  educational 
tenets,  preached  with  all  the  fervor  of  a  Peter 
the  Hermit  and  fought  for  with  all  the  deter- 
mination of  a  Cceur  de  Lion,  have  become  com- 
monplaces. But  such  is  their  value  that  we  do 
well  to  pause  to  honor  the  memory  of  him  who 
made  them  so. 


XV 


STATUS  OF  EDUCATION  AT  THE  CLOSE 
OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY 


An  address  before  the  Department  of  Superintendence  of 
the  National  Educational  Association  at  Chicago, 
Illinois,  February  27,  1900 


STATUS  OF  EDUCATION  AT  THE  CLOSE 
OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY 

Imagination  and  feeling  increasingly  bear  The  centuries 
the  brunt  of  shaping  human  opinion  and  hu- 
man conduct.  Intelligence  does  its  organizing 
work  and  then  disappears  below  the  surface. 
Much  of  life  goes  on  without  its  active  co- 
operation, just  as  many  of  our  mental  reac- 
tions, first  organized  in  the  brain,  come  to  be 
carried  on  through  the  spinal  cord  alone. 
When  we  stop  to  think,  we  realize  that  a  cen- 
tury is  of  human  making,  a  purely  arbitrary 
division  of  time.  Century  might  have  been 
the  name  given  to  a  longer  or  a  shorter  period, 
twenty  years  or  two  hundred,  without  doing 
violence  to  anything  save  present  associations. 
The  limits  of  a  century  are  wholly  imaginary. 
The  skies  do  not  change  when  a  century  is 
ushered  in,  or  the  thunders  roll  when  it  passes 
out.  A  century  begins  and  ends  as  noiselessly 
and  as  unperceived  as  any  moment  which 
glides  from  the  future  into  the  past.  Imagina- 
tion, however,  gives  to  the  century  an  objective 
299 


300       EDUCATION  AT  THE  CLOSE  OF 

reality,  and  feeling  welds  our  thoughts  to  it. 
The  arbitrary  period  of  time  which  it  covers, 
and  the  events  which  happen  in  that  period, 
come  to  have  for  us  a  relation  of  cause  and 
effect  or  of  reciprocal  dependence.  We  cannot 
rid  ourselves  of  that  feeling.  Fancy,  if  you 
can,  Attila  charging  upon  the  Western  Empire 
in  a  century  called  the  fifteenth  instead  of  the 
fifth,  or  Louis  XVI  losing  his  head  in  the 
eighth  century  instead  of  the  eighteenth,  or 
Columbus  discovering  America  in  the  twen- 
tieth. 

We  do  well  to  resign  ourselves  to  the  spell 
of  these  mental  creations,  and  to  learn,  as 
Macaulay  somewhere  said,  to  know  our  cen- 
turies. But  who  can  know  the  nineteenth 
century  ?  Development  so  rapid,  changes  so 
startling,  inventions  so  undreamed  of,  crowd 
each  other  in  a  whirl  of  confusing  images 
when  we  try  to  picture  this  century  and  to 
note  its  salient  facts.  It  is  the  century  of 
Napoleon  and  of  Lincoln,  of  Hegel  and  of 
Darwin,  of  Goethe  and  of  Kipling,  of  Bessemer 
and  of  Rockefeller.  More  leaders  of  enter- 
prise and  more  captains  of  industry  have  ap- 
peared during  this  one  hundred  years  than  in 
all  previous  recorded  history.  The  average  of 
human   intelligence   and   of  human   efficiency 


TEE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY         301 

has  been  raised  to  a  point,  in  the  United  States 
certainly,  which  a  few  hundred  years  ago 
would  have  entailed  notoriety,  and  perhaps 
distinction.  Prosperity  and  querulousness,  de- 
sire and  happiness,  have  all  multiplied  together. 
How  can  all  this  be  interpreted  ? 

The  wisest  answer  seems  to  me  to  be  this:  The 

_.  .  ,  .  -iL       nineteenth 

The  nineteenth  century  is  pre-eminently  the  century 
period  of  individual  liberty — political,  religious, 
intellectual,  industrial;  and  its  manifold  tri- 
umphs and  achievements  are  due  to  the  large 
opportunities  which  have  been  granted  to  in- 
dividual initiative  and  to  individual  expression. 
The  greatness,  the  shortcomings,  and  the  con- 
tradictions of  the  nineteenth  century  are  alike 
due  to  this. 

It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  mankind 
discovered  the  significance  of  the  individual 
rather  late,  and  that,  when  discovered,  this 
significance  was  variously  interpreted.  Man's 
early  institutions  and  his  law,  based  as  they 
were  on  kinship,  took  the  family,  bound  to- 
gether by  tie  of  blood,  as  the  unit.  The  in- 
dividual was  of  very  secondary  importance. 
The  horde,  the  tribe,  the  state  were  successive 
aggregations  of  families,  or,  perhaps  better,  a 
larger  family.  The  interest,  the  ambition,  the 
vengeance   of  the   group   or   community   con- 


3Q2       EDUCATION  AT  THE  CLOSE  OF 


Development 
of  the 
importance 
of  the 
individual 


trolled  each  individual's  acts  and,  in  large 
measure,  his  opinions  and  his  thoughts.  Under 
such  circumstances  education  could  only  be 
tribal  or  ethnic  in  its  aims  and  in  its  forms. 
It  sought  to  reproduce  a  type,  not  to  develop 
a  capacity. 

The  journey  during  the  history  of  civiliza- 
tion from  this  point  of  view  to  one  from  which 
the  individual  is  himself  of  importance  is  a 
long  and  arduous  one.  Of  representative  an- 
cient thinkers  the  Sophists,  the  Cynics,  and 
the  Stoics  alone  championed  the  cause  of  the 
individual  as  such,  and  their  appreciation  of 
the  real  meaning  of  individualism  was  most 
imperfect.  The  Sophist  hope  that  a  man  could 
spin  a  web  of  successful  and  useful  existence 
out  of  the  shadowy  contents  of  his  own  per- 
ceptions, was  dashed  once  and  for  all  by  Soc- 
rates. The  Cynic  revolt  against  social  order 
and  convention  is  typified  by  Diogenes  with 
lantern  and  with  tub.  The  Stoic  outlook  was 
a  broader  one,  but  it  in  turn  was  shut  in  by 
the  massive  height  of  an  omnipresent,  over- 
ruling law,  before  which  man  could  only  seek 
virtue  through  stern  resignation.  The  clew 
suggested  by  the  master-mind  of  Aristotle,  by 
which  the  essential  nature  and  the  limitations 
of  individualism  might  be  made  known,  was 


THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY         303 

not  fully  followed  up  for  centuries.  Yet  from 
the  fifth  century  before  Christ  onward  philos- 
ophy was  increasingly  becoming  not  only  the 
science  of  human  conduct,  but  the  art  of  hu- 
man living;  and  individualism  was  necessarily 
the  gainer.  How  shall  a  man  live  to  attain 
wisdom  and  virtue?  was  the  question  which  the 
Greek  and  Roman  moralists  pressed  home  upon 
each  individual  listener  with  tremendous  force. 
Then  Christianity  came,  with  its  teaching  of 
the  equality  of  every  human  soul  before  the 
judgment-seat  of  God.  Here,  at  last,  indi- 
vidualism seemed  to  have  found  a  secure  foun- 
dation. The  Sermon  on  the  Mount  was  its 
charter  and  its  moral  guide.  A  man's  salva- 
tion depended  upon  himself  alone.  Speedily, 
however,  a  reaction  set  in  and  the  old  habit 
of  setting  hard-and-fast  limits  for  the  individual 
asserted  itself.  Christianity  grew  rapidly  into 
an  elaborate  system  of  doctrine  to  be  held  in 
its  entirety  semper,  ubique,  ab  omnibus.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  Roman  jurists  were  elaborating 
a  system  of  personal  rights  which  was  destined 
to  afford  individualism  a  new  foothold  and  to 
exercise  a  profound  influence  upon  European 
society.  Superficially,  then,  individualism  was 
checked  by  a  body  of  doctrine,  uniformly  pre- 
scribed, which  guided  faith  and  practise;   under 


304       EDUCATION  AT  THE  CLOSE  OF 

the  surface,  rights  and  opportunities  for  the 
individual  continued  to  develop  slowly.  Edu- 
cation took  on  the  form  of  the  superficial  ap- 
pearance of  uniformity,  and  for  centuries  the 
western  world  continued  steadily  to  uncoil 
itself  in  constantly  widening  circles,  but  still 
in  circles.  At  length,  the  inner  contradiction 
between  the  two  great  elements  of  mediaeval 
civilization  asserted  itself  and  the  crash  came. 
With  the  mocking  jests  of  Rabelais,  the  caus- 
tic wit  of  Montaigne,  the  masculine  fervor 
of  Luther,  pent-up  individualism  hurled  itself 
against  the  bars  which  confined  it.  It  broke 
through,  now  here  and  now  there,  and  rushed 
headlessly  hither  and  yon,  searching  for  escape. 
It  tried  mysticism  in  religion  as  a  relief  from 
the  clanking  chains  of  dogma,  and  absolutism 
in  politics  as  a  protection  from  its  nearest  foes. 
Meanwhile,  the  crushing  force  of  ancient  tradi- 
tion asserted  itself  with  dogged  determination. 
But  it  was  too  late;  the  long-checked  desire 
for  a  freedom  which  was  too  often  interpreted 
as  anarchy,  and  for  a  liberty  which  in  its  new- 
ness appeared  to  mean  license,  could  not  be 
controlled.  In  its  name  the  persistent  Anglo- 
Saxon  challenged  the  house  of  Stuart,  and 
after  two  centuries  worked  himself  substan- 
tially  free   from   the   old    forms   of  bondage. 


THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY         305 

The  more  passionate  and  quick-moving  Celt 
had  to  wait  longer,  but  he  acted  more  quickly. 
In  the  dramatic  horrors  and  sublimities  of  the 
French  Revolution  he  gained  his  immediate 
end  at  the  risk  of  losing  every  precious  pos- 
session of  the  race. 

The  smoke  of  the  French  Revolution  hung 
over  Europe  when  the  nineteenth  century 
opened.  As  it  gradually  cleared  away  it  be- 
came obvious  that  the  successful  struggle  of 
individualism  for  recognition  was  almost  over, 
but  that  the  results  were  to  be  worked  out  by 
argument,  not  by  anarchy.  The  century  soon 
to  close  records  what  happened. 

Education,  as  a  matter  of  course,  has  always  Growth  of 

,  ,         .  -      ,  .....  ,  emphasis  on 

borne  the  impress  of  the  civilization  whose  the  individual 
product  it  was.  From  the  fourteenth  century  in  educational 
to  the  nineteenth  the  demand  of  individual- 
ism for  representation  in  the  schools  has  been 
heard,  now  earnest  and  reasonable,  now  pas- 
sionate and  incoherent.  Politics  and  religion 
so  far  overshadowed  education  in  importance 
that  it  was  a  long  time  before  there  was  any 
widespread  recognition  of  the  close  relation 
in  which  education  stood  to  them.  On  this 
matter  the  seventeenth  and  the  eighteenth 
centuries  brought  great  light,  and  there  was 
new  hope  for  the  schools.     False  and  partial 


306        EDUCATION  AT  THE  CLOSE  OF 

as  we  must  hold  much  of  the  French  and  Eng- 
lish philosophy  of  the  eighteenth  century  to  be, 
it  is  nevertheless  to  be  credited  with  having 
convinced  the  world  that  a  fundamental  prin- 
ciple bound  together  rational  progress  in  poli- 
tics, in  religion,  and  in  education.  To  this 
conviction  the  nineteenth  century  has  clung 
most  tenaciously.  The  result  has  been  an  un- 
exampled and  dazzling  expansion  of  educational 
endeavor  and  accomplishment. 

When  the  century  opened  Rousseau  had  been 
dead  nearly  twenty-three  years.  Pestalozzi 
had  just  left  Stanz  for  Burgdorf,  and  at  the 
age  of  fifty-five  was  crying  ecstatically:  "The 
child  is  right;  he  will  not  have  anything  come 
between  nature  and  himself."  Froebel,  an 
introspective  youth  of  nineteen,  was  at  Jena, 
at  that  moment  the  very  centre  of  the  produc- 
tive activity  of  German  thought.  Reinhold 
had  been  expounding  the  new  gospel  according 
to  Kant  there,  and  Fichte  had  only  recently 
been  expelled  while  trying  to  interpret  it. 
Then  and  there  Froebel,  as  he  himself  said, 
began  to  know  the  names  of  Goethe  and  Schil- 
ler and  Wieland.  Hegel,  too,  was  at  Jena. 
His  Lehrjahre  were  behind  him,  and  at  thirty 
years  of  age  he  was  nearly  ready  to  measure 
his   strength  with   the  masters.     The  lecture 


THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY         307 

programmes  of  the  University  of  Jena,  as  has 
been  said,  at  that  time  fairly  "dripped"  philos- 
ophy. Herbart,  who  had  been  one  of  Fichte's 
pupils  at  Jena  a  few  years  earlier,  was  still,  at 
twenty-four,  studying  and  giving  private  in- 
struction. These  five  men — Rousseau,  Pesta- 
lozzi,  Froebel,  Hegel,  and  Herbart — were  to 
give  to  nineteenth-century  education  most  of  its 
philosophical  foundation  and  not  a  few  of  its 
methods.  From  them  have  come  the  main  in- 
fluences which  have  shaped  education  for  a 
hundred  years. 

Each  one  of  the  five  plead  in  his  way  for  the 
value  of  the  individual.  Rousseau,  with  no 
institutional  sense  and  no  insight  into  the 
meaning  of  history,  exclaimed:  "0  man,  con- 
centrate thine  existence  within  thyself,  and 
thou  wilt  no  longer  be  miserable.  Thy  liberty, 
thy  power,  extend  only  as  far  as  thy  natural 
forces,  and  no  farther.  All  the  rest  is  but 
slavery,  illusion,  prestige."  Pestalozzi,  whose 
intellect  never  quite  caught  up  with  his  emo- 
tions, was  really  neglecting  the  individual  by 
his  method  of  trying  to  care  for  him.  Froebel 
and  Hegel  saw  far  deeper.  They  knew  the 
meaning  of  institutions,  of  thought-relations, 
of  development,  both  inner  and  outer.  They 
taught  the  individual  as  a  Gliedganzes,  a  whole 


308        EDUCATION  AT  TEE  CLOSE  OF 


The  new 
spirit  of 
freedom 


and  yet  a  part  of  a  larger  whole,  and  so  gave 
us  our  truest  view  of  individualism  in  educa- 
tion. Herbart's  individualism  was  hard  and 
mechanical,  though  his  doctrine  of  appercep- 
tion gave  promise  of  something  better  and 
more  vital. 

These  men,  then,  projected  individualism 
into  contemporary  educational  theory.  They 
had  hosts  of  disciples  in  many  lands,  and  the 
movement  grew  apace.  It  needed,  however, 
the  touch  of  practise  to  make  it  genuinely  real. 
This  came  after  1848,  the  line  which  divides 
the  century  into  two  parts — the  earlier  part 
dominated  by  thought,  with  spirits  like  Goethe, 
Wordsworth,  Coleridge,  and  Emerson  as  its 
exponents,  the  later  dominated  by  action  with 
Lincoln,  Gladstone,  and  Bismarck  as  exemplars. 
In  1848  the  individual  gained  the  foothold 
which  he  had  struggled  for,  but  lost,  in  the 
haste  of  1789. 

The  pressure  from  practical  life  followed. 
The  old  educational  material  and  the  tradi- 
tional educational  methods  were  attacked  with 
greater  frequency  and  with  greater  vigor,  as 
not  adapted  to  modern  needs.  The  ancient 
languages  and  the  civilizations  they  embalmed 
were  denounced  as  fetiches.  The  world's  phi- 
losophy   was    nonsense;     its    art   was   archaic; 


THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY         309 

its  literature  pedantic  and  overlaid  with  form. 
Straightway  altars  were  erected  to  new  and  un- 
familiar gods;  before  all,  to  that  product  of  the 
human  understanding  called  science,  which 
Mr.  Herbert  Spencer,  with  a  humor  quite  un- 
conscious, defined  as  partially  unified  knowl- 
edge. The  new  spirit  exulted  in  its  freedom. 
It  accomplished  much;  it  ignored  much.  In  a 
thousand  ways  it  impressed  itself  on  life,  on 
literature,  and  on  art.  Education  was  shaken 
to  its  foundations.  Nothing  was  sacred.  No 
subject  of  study,  no  method  of  teaching  was 
immune.  Old  institutions  of  learning  were  too 
slow  to  move  and  to  adapt  themselves  to  these 
conditions.  New  ones  were  invented,  created, 
set  in  motion.  Wealth,  public  and  private, 
poured  out  like  water  to  make  possible  and  to 
"sustain  these  new  types  of  school.  The  seven 
liberal,  arts  faded  into  insignificance  beside  the 
endless  list  of  subjects  now  found  to  be  worthy 
of  study. 

This  great,  world-wide  movement  justified 
itself  for  the  time  by  its  results.  Commerce, 
industry,  and  invention  multiplied  apace.  The 
forces  of  nature  were  commanded  through  being 
obeyed.  Education  had  become  democratic, 
and  was  ready  to  offer  training  in  preparation 
for  any  calling.    The  traditional  list  of  learned 


310       EDUCATION  AT  THE  CLOSE  OF 

professions  was  increased  by  architecture,  en- 
gineering, and  a  dozen  more.  Early  and  com- 
plete adaptation  of  the  individual  to  his  appro- 
priate career  was  hailed  as  the  new  educational 
ideal  before  which  all  else  must  give  way.  In 
consequence,  the  hasty  conclusion  was  drawn 
that  not  only  methods  of  procedure  in  edu- 
cation, but  the  sole  principles  upon  which 
to  proceed,  could  be  learned  by  the  study  of 
the  infant  mind  and  the  infant  body.  Upon 
this  as  a  basis  a  superstructure  of  educational 
theory  and  practise  was  erected,  which  would 
have  delighted  the  heart  of  that  arch-Philistine, 
Rousseau.  All  that  had  been  was  wasteful, 
misleading,  wrong,  not  on  its  merits,  but  sim- 
ply because  it  had  been.  The  progress  of  the 
race  in  civilization  was  explained  as  having 
taken  place  in  spite  of  men's  ideals,  not  be- 
cause of  them;  and  it  was  therefore  rejected 
as  a  source  of  inspiration  and  of  information. 
Individualism  had  not  only  won  a  great  vic- 
tory, but  apparently  its  opponents  were  an- 
nihilated. 
Excesses  of  This  new  philosophy,  however,  had  not  es- 

tablished itself  without  a  protest,  and  as  this 
type  of  individualism  became  more  and  more 
extreme  in  its  claims,  the  protest  grew  louder 
and   more   earnest.      Could   the   crowded   cen- 


individualism 


THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY         311 

turies  of  the  human  past  teach  us  nothing  ? 
Were  the  art  of  Phidias  and  of  Raphael,  the 
verse  of  Homer  and  of  Dante,  the  philosophy 
of  Plato  and  of  Kant,  the  institutions  of  the 
Roman  law  and  of  constitutional  government, 
all  to  depend  for  their  educational  meaning 
and  value  upon  the  carefully  noted  actions  and 
preferences  of  the  unformed  infant  in  its  cradle  ? 
The  humor  of  the  situation  revealed  itself,  and 
the  reaction  set  in. 

Individualism  had  gone  too  far.  In  the  The  individual 
effort  of  forming  its  fullest  flower,  it  had  torn  ^sdtitutions 
itself  up  by  the  roots.  History  did  mean  some-  of  civilization 
thing  after  all;  and  environment  was  discov- 
ered to  be  a  thing  of  three  dimensions,  not  of 
two  only.  Reflection  succeeded  to  controversy. 
Meanwhile  the  new  sciences  of  nature  had 
themselves  been  studying  embryology  and  he- 
redity. These  words  took  on  new  meanings. 
The  individual  was  seen  to  be  a  product  as  well 
as  a  producer.  Product  of  what  ?  Of  all  that 
man  had  thought  and  done,  and  of  his  own 
infinitesimal  self.  But  if  this  were  true,  then 
what  of  education  ?  Obviously,  the  defenders 
of  the  new  must  shift  their  ground  and  retreat 
from  the  untenable  position  of  Rousseau  to 
the  impregnable  fortress,  Gliedganzes,  of  Froe- 
bel,  of  Hegel,  and  of  all  philosophical  teachers 


312        EDUCATION  AT  THE  CLOSE  OF 


Influence  of 
the  doctrine 
of  evolution 


of  evolution.  This  change  has  been  made, 
and  as  the  century  closes  the  soundest  educa- 
tional philosophy  the  world  over  teaches  that 
the  individual  alone  is  nothing,  but  that  the 
individual  as  a  member  of  a  society  and  of  a 
race  is  everything.  Selfhood,  which  can  only 
be  attained  by  entering  into  the  life-history 
and  the  experience  of  the  race,  is  now  put  in 
the  high  place  which  was  about  to  be  rashly 
filled  by  selfishness.  True  individualism,  which 
would  enrich  the  life  of  each  with  the  posses- 
sions of  all,  is  well-nigh  supreme,  and  sham 
individualism,  which  would  set  every  man's 
hand  against  his  fellow,  is  disposed  of,  let  us 
hope  forever.  Education  rests  securely  upon 
the  continuous  history  of  man's  civilization, 
and  looks  to  the  nature  of  each  individual  for 
guidance  in  the  best  methods  of  conducting 
him  to  his  inheritance,  but  not  for  knowledge 
of  what  that  inheritance  is. 

Every  conception  of  this  nineteenth  century, 
educational  as  well  as  other,  has  been  cross- 
fertilized  by  the  doctrine  of  evolution.  In 
whichever  direction  we  turn  we  meet  that  doc- 
trine or  some  one  of  its  manifold  implications. 
We  have  incorporated  it  into  educational  the- 
ory and  have  thereby  shed  a  flood  of  light 
upon  problems  hitherto  dark.      Evolution  has 


THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY       313 

assisted  mightily  in  that  interpretation  of  in- 
dividualism  which   I   have  just   defended.      It 
has   bound   the   universe  together  by  homoge- 
neous law,  and  the  relations  of  each  to  all,  both 
physical    and   social,  have  become  far  clearer 
and  more  definite.     But  much  remains  to  be 
done   in    applying   the   teachings  of  evolution 
in    actual   plans    and    methods   of  instruction. 
The  application  is  going  on,  however,  all  around 
us  and  without  cessation,  and  is  the  cause  of 
not  a  little  of  the  existing  educational  inquiry 
and  unrest.     Our  schools  have  shed  one  shell 
and  the  other  is  not  yet  grown.     Illustrations 
of  this  will  be  found  in  the  teaching  of  mathe- 
matics, of  language,  of  history,  and  of  the  nat- 
ural   sciences.      We    halt    often    between    the 
logical  and  the  psychological  order,  failing  to 
appreciate  that  evolution  gives  a  place  to  each. 
The  logical  order  is  the  order  of  proof,  of  demon- 
stration;   the  psychological  order  is  the  order  The  logical 
of  discovery,  of  learning.    Children  do  not  learn  pgychoJogical 
logically;    they  come  later  to  see  logical  rela-  order 
tions  in  what  they  have  learned.     The  well- 
equipped  teacher   knows  both  logic   and   psy- 
chology.    He  is  prepared  to  guide  the  pupil  in 
his  natural  course  of  learning,  and  also  to  point 
out    to   him   the   structure   of   relationship    of 
what   he  has  learned.     Text-book  writers  the 


314       EDUCATION  AT  TEE  CLOSE  OF 


Evolution 

and 

individualism 


world  over  have  been  slow  to  see  this  distinc- 
tion; but  with  but  few  exceptions,  the  best 
American  text-books,  which  control  so  power- 
fully all  school  processes,  are  in  advance  of 
those  most  in  use  in  Europe.  The  logical  order 
is  so  simple,  so  coherent,  and  so  attractive, 
that  it  seems  a  pity  to  surrender  it  for  the 
less  trim  and  less  precise  order  of  develop- 
ment; but  this  will  have  to  be  done  if  teach- 
ing efficiency  according  to  evolution  is  to  be 
had. 

The  course  of  evolution  in  the  race  and  in 
the  individual  furnishes  us  also  with  the  clew 
to  the  natural  order  and  the  real  relationships 
of  studies.  It  warns  us  against  the  artificial, 
the  bizarre,  and  points  us  to  the  fundamental 
and  the  real.  Only  educational  scholarship  can 
protect  the  schools  against  educational  dilet- 
tantism. 

Two  lines  are  needed  to  determine  the  posi- 
tion of  a  point.  The  two  principles  of  evolu- 
tion and  of  an  individualism  viewed  in  the 
light  of  the  history  of  civilization,  seem  to  me 
to  determine  the  status  of  education  at  the 
close  of  the  century.  The  working  of  these 
principles  is  exemplified  in  practise  in  a  thou- 
sand ways.  They  lie  behind  and  determine 
every  effort  for  improvement  and  for  progress. 


TEE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY         315 

The  diverse  types  of  school,  higher  and  lower, 
with   their   widely   different   special   ends    and 
yet  with   a  common  fund  of  basic  knowledge 
which    they    all    impart,    reveal    a    purpose   to 
cultivate  and  to  adapt  the  special  powers  and 
talents  of  the  individual,  while  holding  him  in 
touch  with  the  life  and  the  interests  of  his  kind. 
The  existence  of  the  wonder-working  elective 
system  in  secondary  schools  and  colleges,  to- 
gether   with    the    limitations   put   upon   it,   is 
due  to  a  real  as  opposed  to  a  sham  individual- 
ism.    The  marked  emphasis  now  laid  upon  the 
social  aspect  of  education,  in  Europe  as  well  as 
in  the  United  States,  and  also  upon  the  school  as 
a  social  institution  and  a  social  centre,  is  ad- 
ditional evidence  of  the  dominance  of  the  in- 
dividualism   of   Froebel    rather    than    that    of 
Rousseau.      The    demands    for    the    establish- 
ment of  a  proper  system  of  secondary  educa- 
tion in  England,  for  the  making  over  of  the 
secondary    school    systems   of   France    and   of 
Germany,  for  the  closer  articulation  of  lower 
schools  and  higher  schools,  of  schools  and  col- 
leges,  in   the   United   States,   for   making   ele- 
mentary school   instruction    as    little  wasteful 
and  as  full  of  content  as  possible,  for  bringing 
forward  studies  which  give  adequate  scope  for 
expression  in  various  forms,  and  the  demand 


316        EDUCATION  AT  THE  CLOSE  OF 


New 

importance 
of  education 
as  a 

government 
function 


that  the  community  shall  relate  itself  to  its 
educational  system  simply  and  effectively — ■ 
all  these  are  based,  consciously  or  uncon- 
sciously, upon  the  desire  to  apply  the  teachings 
of  evolution  and  to  progress  toward  the  ideal 
of  a  perfected  individualism. 

Education,  so  conceived  and  so  shaped,  has 
made  an  irresistible  appeal  to  every  civilized 
nation.  During  the  century  education  has 
definitely  become  a  state  function,  not  as  a 
dole  but  as  a  duty.  Consequently,  the  public 
expenditure  for  education  has  become  enor- 
mous. In  the  United  States  it  amounts  an- 
nually to  $200,000,000  for  the  common  schools 
alone,  or  $2.67  per  capita  of  population.  This 
sum  is  about  one-tenth  of  the  total  wealth  of 
Indiana  or  of  Michigan  as  determined  by  the 
census  of  1890.  In  Great  Britain  and  Ireland 
the  total  public  expenditure  on  account  of 
education  is  over  $88,000,000,  or  $2.20  per 
capita.  In  France  it  is  about  $58,000,000,  or 
$1.60  per  capita.  In  the  German  Empire  it  is 
over  $108,000,000,  or  more  than  $2.00  per 
capita.  These  four  great  nations,  therefore, 
the  leaders  of  the  world's  civilization  at  this 
time,  with  a  total  population  of  nearly  210,- 
000,000,  are  spending  annually  for  education 
a  sum  considerably  greater  than  $450,000,000. 


THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY         317 

The  annual  expenditure  of  the  United  States 
for  common  schools  is  quite  equal  to  the  sum 
total  of  the  expenditures  of  Great  Britain, 
France,  and  Germany  combined  upon  their 
powerful  navies.  It  is  nearly  four-fifths  of  the 
total  annual  expenditure  of  the  armed  camps  of 
France  and  Germany  upon  their  huge  armies. 
It  is  a  sum  greater  by  many  millions  than  the 
net  ordinary  expenditures  of  the  United  States 
Government  in  1880.  This  expenditure  for 
common  schools  has  nearly  trebled  since  1870, 
and  during  that  period  has  grown  from  #1.75 
to  $2.67  per  capita  of  population  and  from 
$15.20  to  $18.86  for  each  pupil  enrolled. 

These  imposing  and  suggestive  statistics 
mark,  in  the  most  objective  fashion  possible, 
the  distance  we  have  travelled  from  the  be- 
ginning of  the  century,  when  there  was  literally 
no  such  thing  in  existence  anywhere  in  the 
civilized  world  as  a  state  system  of  education. 
But  pride  of  achievement  should  yield  to  a 
feeling  of  responsibility  for  the  future.  In  the 
light  of  the  nineteenth  century  no  man  dare 
prophesy  what  the  twentieth  century  will 
bring  forth.  We  only  know  that  a  democracy 
shielded  by  insight  into  the  past  and  armed 
with  trained  minds,  disciplined  wills,  and  a 
scientific  method,  is  as  ready  as  man's  imperfect 


318         TEE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY 

wisdom  can  make  it  for  whatever  may  come  in 
the  future. 

Daniel  Webster,  in  his  oration  at  the  laying 
of  the  corner-stone  of  the  Bunker  Hill  monu- 
ment, exulted  honestly  in  the  conviction  that 
the  example  of  our  country  was  full  of  benefit 
to  human  freedom  and  to  human  happiness 
everywhere.  "We  can  win  no  laurels  in  a 
war  for  independence,"  he  said.  "Earlier  and 
worthier  hands  have  gathered  them  all.  Nor 
are  there  places  for  us  by  the  side  of  Solon, 
and  Alfred,  and  other  founders  of  states.  Our 
fathers  have  filled  them.  But  there  remains 
to  us  a  great  duty  of  defense  and  preservation; 
and  there  is  opened  to  us,  also,  a  noble  pur- 
suit, to  which  the  spirit  of  the  times  strongly 
invites  us.  Our  proper  business  is  improve- 
ment." This  injunction  laid  upon  Americans 
by  their  great  orator  three-quarters  of  a  century 
ago,  has  lost  none  of  its  force.  It  applies  with 
peculiar  directness  to  teachers  and  to  teaching. 
The  glory  of  founding  educational  systems  can- 
not be  ours;  but  the  effort  for  improvement, 
by  building  wise  practise  upon  sound  theory, 
is  within  the  reach  of  each  one  of  us. 


XVI 

SOME  FUNDAMENTAL  PRINCIPLES  OF 
AMERICAN  EDUCATION 


An  address  before  the  Convocation  of  the  University  of 
the  State  of  New  York,  at  Albany,  New  York,  June 
30»  1902 


SOME  FUNDAMENTAL  PRINCIPLES  OF 
AMERICAN   EDUCATION 

It  was  my  good  fortune  to  hear  one  of  Gen- 
eral Garfield's  most  eloquent  speeches.  From 
the  gallery  of  a  great  hall  I  looked  down  upon 
a  scene  where  ambition,  envy,  and  patriotism 
were  all  struggling  for  expression  in  the  na- 
tional convention  of  a  powerful  political  party. 
A  candidate  for  President  of  the  United  States 
was  to  be  chosen.  The  walls  had  trembled  at 
the  mighty  cheers  that  thousands  of  strong, 
eager  men  had  given  for  the  leaders  of  their 
choice.  Finally,  amid  perfect  silence,  General 
Garfield  rose  in  his  place  among  the  represen- 
tatives of  Ohio  and  made  his  way  to  the  plat- 
form to  put  before  the  convention  the  name  of 
the  man  whom  he  preferred  above  all  others 
for  President  of  the  United  States.  He  had 
been  greatly  moved  by  the  tempest  of  cheering 
and  applause  which  had  greeted  two  of  the 
names  already  in  nomination,  and  he  sought 
to  lead  the  convention  away  from  the  pas- 
sionate feeling  of  the  moment  to  a  more  sober 
321 


322    SOME  FUNDAMENTAL  PRINCIPLES 

and  substantial  standard  of  judgment.  With 
solemnity  and  deliberation,  General  Garfield 
opened  his  speech  with  these  sentences: 

I  have  witnessed  the  extraordinary  scenes  of  this  con- 
vention with  deep  solicitude.  Nothing  touches  my  heart 
more  quickly  than  a  tribute  of  honor  to  a  great  and  noble 
character;  but  as  I  sat  in  my  seat  and  witnessed  this 
demonstration,  this  assemblage  seemed  to  me  a  human 
ocean  in  tempest.  I  have  seen  the  sea  lashed  into  fury 
and  tossed  into  spray,  and  its  grandeur  moves  the  soul 
of  the  dullest  man;  but  I  remember  that  it  is  not  the  bil- 
lows, but  the  calm  level  of  the  sea,  from  which  all  heights 
and  depths  are  measured. 

When  the  storm  has  passed  and  the  hour  of  calm  set- 
tles on  the  ocean,  when  the  sunlight  bathes  its  peaceful 
surface,  then  the  astronomer  and  surveyor  take  the  level 
from  which  they  measure  all  terrestrial  heights  and 
depths.  .  .  . 

Not  here,  in  this  brilliant  circle  where  15,000  men  and 
women  are  gathered,  is  the  destiny  of  the  Republic  to 
be  decreed  for  the  next  four  years.  Not  here,  where  I 
see  the  enthusiastic  faces  of  756  delegates,  waiting  to 
cast  their  lots  into  the  urn  and  determine  the  choice  of 
the  Republic ;  but  by  four  millions  of  Republican  fire- 
sides, where  the  thoughtful  voters,  with  wives  and  chil- 
dren about  them,  with  the  calm  thoughts  inspired  by 
love  of  home  and  country,  with  the  history  of  the  past, 
the  hopes  of  the  future,  and  reverence  for  the  great  men 
who  have  adorned  and  blessed  our  nation  in  days  gone  by, 
burning  in  their  hearts — there  God  prepares  the  verdict 
which  will  determine  the  wisdom  of  our  work  to-night. 


OF  AMERICAN  EDUCATION  323 

Often  in  listening  to  debates  and  discussions 
of  matters  far  removed  from  things  political, 
this  counsel  of  Garfield's  has  recurred  to  me. 
It  seems  to  be  so  easy,  in  education  as  else- 
where, to  yield  to  the  pressure  of  momentary 
feeling  or  temporary  expediency  and  to  lose 
sight  of  the  deep  underlying  principles  which 
should,  and  in  the  long  run  must,  control  our 
action  and  our  policies,  that  we  need  constant 
reminder  of  what  those  principles  are.  There- 
fore, in  accepting  the  invitation  to  address  the 
Convocation  of  the  University  of  the  State  of 
New  York,  I  shall  endeavor  to  place  before 
you,  though  with  necessary  brevity,  some  prin- 
ciples which  appear  to  me  to  be  fundamental 
in  our  American  educational  system  and  policy. 
I  am  the  more  ready  to  do  this  because,  during 
the  last  two  or  three  years,  in  important  de- 
bates, I  have  observed  that  some  of  these  con- 
siderations have  been  overlooked  or  their  ex- 
istence flatly  denied. 

First  and  foremost,  I  name  this  proposition 
and  hold  it  to  be  fundamental  to  our  American 
educational  system: 

While  all  forms  of  education  may  be  under  American 

1  1    education  not 

government    control,    yet    government    control  exclusively  a 
of  education  is  not  exclusive,  and  the  national  government 
system  of  education  in  the  United  States  in-    uac 


324    SOME  FUNDAMENTAL  PRINCIPLES 

eludes  schools  and  institutions  carried  on  with- 
out direct  governmental  oversight  and  support, 
as  well  as  those  that  are  maintained  by  public 
tax  and  administered  by  governmental  agencies. 
Some  very  important  consequences  follow 
from  the  acceptance  of  this  principle.  A  na- 
tion's life  is  much  more  than  an  inventory  of  its 
governmental  activities.  For  example,  the  sum 
total  of  the  educational  activity  of  the  United 
States  is  not  to  be  ascertained  by  making  an 
inventory  of  what  the  government — national, 
State,  and  local — is  doing,  but  only  by  taking 
account  of  all  that  the  people  of  the  United 
States  are  doing,  partly  through  governmental 
forms  and  processes  and  partly  in  non-govern- 
mental ways  and  by  non-governmental  sys- 
tems. In  other  words,  the  so-called  public 
education  of  the  United  States,  that  which  is 
tax-supported  and  under  the  direct  control  of 
a  governmental  agency,  is  not  the  entire  na- 
tional educational  system.  To  get  at  what  the 
people  of  the  United  States  are  doing  for  edu- 
cation and  to  measure  the  full  length  and 
breadth  of  the  nation's  educational  system, 
we  must  add  to  public  or  tax-supported  educa- 
tion, all  activities  of  similar  kind  that  are  carried 
on  by  private  corporations,  by  voluntary  as- 
sociations, and  by  individuals.     The  nation  is 


character 
of  non-tax- 


OF  AMERICAN  EDUCATION  325 

represented  partly  by  each  of  these  under- 
takings, wholly  by  no  one  of  them.  The  terms 
national  and  governmental  are  happily  not 
convertible  in  the  United  States,  whether  it  be 
of  universities,  of  morals,  or  of  efficiency  that 
we  are  speaking. 

This  point  is  of  far-reaching  importance,  for  Public 
it  has  become  one  of  the  political  assumptions 
of  our  time  that  any  undertaking  to  be  rep-  supported 
resentative  of  the  nation  must  be  one  which  education 
is  under  governmental  control.  Should  this 
view  ever  command  the  deliberate  assent  of  a 
majority  of  the  American  people,  our  institu- 
tions would  undergo  radical  change  and  our 
liberties  and  right  of  initiative  would  be  only 
such  as  the  government  of  the  moment  might 
vouchsafe  to  us.  But  we  are  still  clear-sighted 
enough  to  realize  that  our  national  ideals  and 
our  national  spirit  find  expression  in  and 
through  the  churches,  the  newspaper  press,  the 
benefactions  to  letters,  science,  and  art,  the 
spontaneous  uprisings  in  behalf  of  stricken 
humanity  and  oppressed  peoples,  and  a  hun- 
dred other  similar  forms,  quite  as  truly  as  they 
find  expression  in  and  through  legislative  acts 
and  appropriations,  judicial  opinions,  and  ad- 
ministrative orders.  The  latter  are  govern- 
mental in  form  and  in  effect;    the  former  are 


326    SOME  FUNDAMENTAL  PRINCIPLES 

not.  Both  are  national  in  the  sense  that  both 
represent  characteristics  of  the  national  life 
and  character. 

The  confusion  between  a  nation's  life  and  a 
nation's  government  is  common  enough,  but 
so  pernicious  that  I  may  be  permitted  a  few 
words  concerning  it. 
Government  When  Hegel  asserted  that  morality  is  the 
and  liberty  ultimate  end  for  which  the  state — that  is, 
politically  organized  mankind — exists,  he  stated 
one  of  the  profoundest  moral  and  political 
truths.  But  it  is  pointed  out  to  us  by  political 
science  that  before  any  such  ultimate  end  can 
be  gained,  the  proximate  end  of  the  develop- 
ment of  national  states  must  be  aimed  at.  The 
state  operates  to  develop  the  principle  of  na- 
tionality which  exists  among  persons  knit  to- 
gether by  common  origin,  common  speech,  and 
common  habitat,  through  creating  and  per- 
fecting two  things — government  and  liberty. 
The  first  step  out  of  barbarism  is  the  establish- 
ment of  a  government  strong  enough  to  pre- 
serve peace  and  order  at  home  and  to  resist 
successfully  attack  from  without.  This  ac- 
complished, the  state  must  turn  to  the  setting 
up  of  a  system  of  individual  liberty.  It  does 
this  by  marking  out  the  limits  within  which 
individual   initiative   and    autonomy   are   per- 


OF  AMERICAN  EDUCATION  327 

mitted,  and  by  directing  the  government  to 
refrain  from  crossing  these  limits  itself  and  to 
prevent  any  one  else  from  crossing  them.  After 
government  and  liberty  have  both  been  estab- 
lished, then  all  subsequent  history  is  the  story 
of  a  continually  changing  line  of  demarcation 
between  them,  according  as  circumstances 
suggest  or  dictate.  In  the  United  States,  for 
example,  the  post-office  is  in  the  domain  of 
government;  the  express  business  and  the 
sending  of  telegrams  are  in  the  domain  of 
liberty.  In  different  countries,  and  in  the 
same  country  at  different  times,  the  line  be- 
tween the  sphere  of  government  and  the  sphere 
of  liberty  is  differently  drawn.  In  Germany 
the  conduct  of  railways  is  largely  an  affair  of 
government;  in  the  United  States  it  is  largely 
an  affair  of  liberty.  Schools,  for  example,  are 
to-day  much  more  an  affair  of  government 
than  ever  before,  but  they  are  still  an  affair 
which  falls  in  the  domain  of  liberty  as  well. 
In  short,  government  plus  liberty,  each  being 
the  name  for  a  field  of  activity,  gives  the  com- 
plete life  of  the  state;  government  alone  does 
so  just  as  little  as  the  sphere  of  liberty  alone 
would  do  so.  These  principles  are  all  set  forth 
with  great  lucidity  and  skill  by  my  colleague, 
Professor  Burgess,  in  his  work  entitled  Political 


328    SOME  FUNDAMENTAL  PRINCIPLES 

Science  and  Comparative  Constitutional  Law.     In 
discussing  this  distinction  he  writes: 

It  is  often  said  that  the  state  does  nothing  for  certain 
causes,  as,  for  instance,  religion  or  the  higher  education, 
when  the  government  does  not  exercise  its  powers  in  their 
behalf.  This  does  not  at  all  follow.  If  the  state  guar- 
antees the  liberty  of  conscience  and  of  thought  and  ex- 
pression, and  permits  the  association  of  individuals  for 
the  purposes  of  religion  and  education,  and  protects  such 
associations  in  the  exercise  of  their  rights,  it  does  a  vast 
deal  for  religion  and  education;  vastly  more,  under  cer- 
tain social  conditions,  than  if  it  should  authorize  the  gov- 
ernment to  interfere  in  these  domains.  The  confusion  of 
thought  upon  this  subject  arises  from  the  erroneous  as- 
sumptions that  the  state  does  nothing  except  what  it  does 
through  the  government;  that  the  state  is  not  the  creator 
of  liberty;  that  liberty  is  natural  right,  and  that  the  state 
only  imposes  a  certain  necessary  restraint  upon  the  same. 
.  .  .  There  never  was,  and  there  never  can  be,  any  liberty 
on  this  earth  and  among  human  beings  outside  of  state 
organization.  .  .  .  Mankind  does  not  begin  with  liberty. 
Mankind  acquires  liberty  through  civilization.  Liberty 
is  as  truly  a  creation  of  the  state  as  is  government.1 

A  written  constitution,  it  may  be  added,  is 
a  formal  act  of  creation  of  a  government  and  a 
careful  delimitation  of  its  powers.  It  also  de- 
fines the  sphere  of  individual  liberty,  directly 
or  indirectly,  and  so  the  individual  is  protected 
by  the  state  against  the  government.     Through 

1  Op.  cit.  (Boston,  1890),  I  :  87-89. 


OF  AMERICAN  EDUCATION  329 

the  government  he  is  also  protected  against 
encroachment  from  elsewhere.  In  the  Con- 
stitution of  the  United  States,  for  example,  the 
individual  is  guaranteed  by  the  state  the  rights 
peaceably  to  assemble  and  to  petition  the 
government  for  a  redress  of  grievances,  and 
the  government  must  both  refrain  from  in- 
vading those  rights  and  prevent  others  from 
invading  them.  If  the  government  should  fail 
to  do  this,  the  state  which  created  the  govern- 
ment would  surely  remodel  or  destroy  it. 

I  shall  not  apologize  for  this  excursion  into 
the  domain  of  political  science,  inasmuch  as  I 
hold  the  distinction  between  state  and  govern- 
ment to  be  of  crucial  importance  for  right 
thinking  upon  the  larger  problems  of  our  edu- 
cational polity.  When  once  the  distinction 
between  state  and  government  is  grasped,  and 
also  the  further  distinction  between  the  sphere 
of  government  and  the  sphere  of  liberty,  then 
it  is  seen  to  be  a  matter  of  expediency,  to  be 
determined  by  a  study  of  the  facts  and  by 
argument,  whether  a  given  matter — such  as 
support  of  schools  or  the  control  of  railways 
and  telegraphs — should  be  assigned  to  the 
sphere  of  government  or  to  the  sphere  of 
liberty. 

In  the  United  States  there  are  three  differ- 


33°    SOME  FUNDAMENTAL  PRINCIPLES 


The  three 
types  of 
American 
educational 
institution 


National 

institutions 

not 

necessarily 

governmental 


ent  types  of  educational  institution,  all  resting 
upon  the  power  of  the  State.  One  of  the  three 
depends  wholly  and  one  partly  upon  the  govern- 
ment. The  third  type  is  without  any  govern- 
mental relationship  whatever.  The  three  types 
are  these: 

i.  Those  institutions  which  the  government 
establishes  and  maintains,  such  as  the  public 
schools,  the  public  libraries,  and  the  State 
universities. 

2.  Those  institutions  which  the  government 
authorizes,  such  as  school,  college,  and  uni- 
versity corporations,  private  or  semipublic  in 
character,  which  gain  their  powers  and  privi- 
leges by  a  charter  granted  by  the  proper  govern- 
mental authority,  and  which  are  often  given 
aid  by  the  government  in  the  form  of  partial 
or  entire  exemption  from  taxation. 

3.  Those  institutions  which  the  State  per- 
mits, because  it  has  conferred  on  the  govern- 
ment no  power  to  forbid  or  to  restrict  them, 
such  as  private-venture  (unincorporated)  edu- 
cational undertakings  of  various  kinds. 

Our  American  educational  system  is  made  up 
of  all  these,  and  whether  a  given  school,  col- 
lege, or  university  is  national  or  not  does  not 
in  the  least  depend  upon  the  fact  that  it  is  or 
is   not   governmental.      France   and   Germany 


OF  AMERICAN  EDUCATION  331 

have  great  national  universities  which  are  gov- 
ernmental; England  and  the  United  States 
have  great  national  universities  which  are  non- 
governmental. Oxford  and  Cambridge  are  no 
less  truly  English,  and  Harvard  and  Columbia 
are  no  less  truly  American,  because  their  funds 
are  not  derived  from  public  tax  and  because 
the  appointments  to  their  professorships  are 
not  made  or  confirmed  by  government  officers. 
Whether  a  given  institution  is  truly  national 
or  not  depends,  in  the  United  States,  upon 
whether  it  is  democratic  in  spirit,  catholic  in 
temper,  and  without  political,  theological,  or 
local  limitations  and  trammels.  It  may  be 
religious  in  tone  and  in  purpose  and  yet  be 
national,  provided  only  that  its  doors  be  not 
closed  to  any  quailed  student  because  of  his 
creed. 

It  is  worth  noting  that  while  in  the  United 
States  the  government  bears  nearly  the  entire 
brunt  of  elementary  education,  it  finds  a  pow- 
erful ally  in  non-governmental  institutions  in 
the  field  of  secondary  and  higher  education. 
The  statistics  gathered  by  the  commissioner  of 
education  show  that  for  the  year  ending  June 
30,  1900,  of  all  elementary  school  pupils  92.27 
per  cent  were  enrolled  in  governmental  in- 
stitutions, while  for  secondary  and  higher  edu- 


332    SOME  FUNDAMENTAL  PRINCIPLES 

cation  the  percentages  were  73.75  and  38.17 
respectively.  In  other  words,  non-govern- 
mental institutions — those  which  are  loosely 
described  as  private  schools  and  colleges — are 
instructing  about  1-13  of  the  pupils  of  ele- 
mentary grade,  about  1-4  of  the  pupils  of  sec- 
ondary grade,  and  about  2-3  of  the  pupils  of 
higher  grade.  Almost  exactly  1-10  of  the  whole 
number  of  pupils  of  all  grades  are  enrolled  in 
non-governmental,  so-called  private,  institu- 
tions. It  is  just  this  word  "private"  which 
increases  the  confusion  against  which  my  argu- 
ment is  directed.  It  is  my  contention  that 
none  of  these  institutions  is  properly  described 
as  "private";  they  are  all  public,  but  not  all 
governmental.  If  this  point  is  clear,  then  we 
shall  have  escaped  the  fallacies  and  dangers 
that  follow  from  confusing  tax-supported,  gov- 
ernmental undertakings  with  public  tendencies 
and  movements.  In  education  and  in  our  po- 
litical life  generally,  the  public  tendencies  and 
movements  are  a  genus  of  which  governmental 
activities  are  a  species. 

As   a   second   fundamental   principle   of  our 

American  educational  system,  I  name  this: 

Scope  of  The    duly    constituted    authorities    of    any 

eTucatioa1^64    scno°^    district    or    other    political    unit    may 

establish  and  maintain  schools  of  any  kind  or 


OF  AMERICAN  EDUCATION  333 

grade  for  which  the  voters  consent  in  regular 
form  to  bear  the  expense. 

.  There  is  a  wide-spread  belief  that  elemen- 
tary education  under  government  control  is  a 
matter  of  right,  but  that  secondary  and  higher 
education  under  government  control  are  im- 
proper invasions  of  the  domain  of  liberty. 
There  is  no  ground  in  our  public  policy  for  this 
belief.  The  government  has  the  same  right  to 
do  for  secondary  and  for  higher  education  that 
it  has  to  do  for  elementary  education.  What 
and  how  much  it  shall  do,  if  anything,  in  a 
particular  case,  is  a  question  of  expediency; 
the  right  to  do  as  much  as  it  chooses  is  un- 
questionable. 

Upon  this  point  there  is  an  important  de- 
cision,1 made  by  unanimous  vote  of  the  Supreme 
Court  of  Michigan  in  1874,  which  may  fairly 
be  taken  to  represent  our  established  policy. 
The  opinion  was  written  by  Justice  Thomas 
M.  Cooley,  one  of  the  most  learned  and  au- 
thoritative of  American  constitutional  lawyers. 
The  decision  was  rendered  in  a  suit  known  as 
"the  Kalamazoo  case,"  to  restrain  the  col- 
lection of  such  portion  of  the  school  taxes  as- 
sessed  against  the  complainants   for  the  year 

1  Michigan  Reports  (1875),  30  :  69-85.  (Stuart  v.  School 
District  No.  I  of  Kalamazoo.) 


334    SOME  FUNDAMENTAL  PRINCIPLES 

1872  as  was  voted  for  the  support  of  the  high 
school  and  for  the  payment  of  the  salary  of  the 
superintendent  of  schools  in  school  district 
No.  1  of  Kalamazoo.  The  position  of  the  com- 
plainants, as  stated  by  the  court,  was  as 
follows : 

While  there  may  be  no  constitutional  provision  expressly- 
prohibiting  such  taxation,  the  general  course  of  legislation 
in  the  State  and  the  general  understanding  of  the  people 
have  been  such  as  to  require  instruction  in  the  classics 
and  in  living  modern  languages  in  the  public  schools  to 
be  regarded  as  in  the  nature,  not  of  practical  and  therefore 
necessary  instruction  for  the  benefit  of  the  people  at  large, 
but  rather  as  accomplishments  for  the  few,  to  be  sought 
after  in  the  main  by  those  best  able  to  pay  for  them,  and 
to  be  paid  for  by  those  who  seek  them,  and  not  by  general 
tax.  And  further,  that  the  higher  learning,  when  sup- 
plied by  the  State,  is  so  far  a  matter  of  private  concern 
to  those  who  receive  it  that  the  courts  ought  to  declare 
the  State  incompetent  to  supply  it  wholly  at  the  public 
expense. 

In  answer  to  this  contention  the  court  ex- 
presses surprise  that  the  legislation  and  policy 
of  the  State  were  appealed  to  against  the  right 
of  the  State  to  furnish  a  liberal  education  to 
the  youth  of  the  State  in  schools  brought  with- 
in the  reach  of  all  classes. 

We  supposed  [adds  the  court]  it  had  always  been  under- 
stood in  this  State  that  education,  not  merely  in  the  rudi- 


OF  AMERICAN  EDUCATION  335 

merits,  but  in  an  enlarged  sense,  was  regarded  as  an  im- 
portant practical  advantage  to  be  supplied  at  their  option 
to  rich  and  poor  alike,  and  not  as  something  pertaining 
merely  to  culture  and  accomplishment,  to  be  brought  as 
such  within  the  reach  of  those  whose  accumulated  wealth 
enabled  them  to  pay  for  it. 

The  court  then  passes  in  review,  in  most 
instructive  fashion,  the  development  of  the 
educational  policy  of  the  State  from  the  be- 
ginning, and  concludes,  as  follows: 

We  content  ourselves  with  the  statement  that  neither 
in  our  State  policy,  in  our  constitution,  nor  in  our  laws, 
do  we  find  the  primary-school  districts  restricted  in  the 
branches  of  knowledge  which  their  officers  may  cause  to 
be  taught,  or  the  grade  of  instruction  that  may  be  given, 
if  their  voters  consent  in  regular  form  to  bear  the  expense 
and  raise  the  taxes  for  the  purpose. 

In  consonance  with  this  opinion  is  one  de- 
livered by  the  Supreme  Court  of  Missouri  in 
1883,1  in  which  it  is  held  that  the  term  "com- 
mon," when  applied  to  schools,  is  used  to  de- 
note the  fact  that  they  are  open  and  public  to 
all  rather  than  to  indicate  the  grade  of  the 
school,  or  what  may  or  may  not  be  taught 
therein.  The  court  also  holds  that  the  term 
"school"  of  itself  does  not  imply  a  restriction 
to  the  rudiments  of  an  education. 

1  See  Missouri  Reports  (1882-3),  77  :  485-489- 


336    SOME  FUNDAMENTAL  PRINCIPLES 

It  is  interesting  to  contrast  these  decisions 
in  Michigan  and  in  Missouri  with  the  con- 
clusion reached  by  the  Court  of  Queen's  Bench 
in  England  in  1901  in  the  now  famous  case  of 
the  Queen  versus  Cockerton,1  in  which  it  is 
expressly  held  that  it  is  not  within  the  power 
of  a  school  board  to  expend  money  raised  by 
local  taxes  upon  any  education  other  than 
elementary.  The  terms  of  the  Education  Act 
of  1870  and  of  the  many  acts  supplementary 
thereto  no  doubt  justified  the  court's  decision, 
but  the  fact  that  such  a  conclusion  is  bad 
public  policy  has  been  brought  to  the  atten- 
tion of  a  large  number  of  thoughtful  persons, 
and  has  had  no  small  part  in  the  present  educa- 
tional debate  which  is  much  the  most  impor- 
tant matter  before  Parliament  and  the  English 
people. 

A  third  fundamental  principle  of  our  Ameri- 
can education  is  this: 
Tax-supported  The  schools  which  are  maintained  by  govern- 
mental authority  are  established  in  the  interest 
of  the  whole  people,  and  because  of  the  con- 
trolling conviction  that  an  instructed  and  en- 
lightened population  is  essential  to  the  per- 
petuity of  democratic  institutions  and  to  their 
effective  operation.     The  schools  are  therefore 

1  See  Law  Reports,  Kings  Bench  (1901),  I  :  322-360,  726-740. 


education  as 
public  service 


OF  AMERICAN  EDUCATION  337 

a  proper  charge  upon  all  taxpaying  persons  and 
property,  and  not  merely  upon  those  whose 
children  receive  instruction  therein.  Nor  are 
they  in  any  sense  schools  which  are  provided 
for  the  poor  or  the  unfortunate. 

When  stated,  this  principle  seems  axiomatic. 
Nevertheless,  it  is  openly  or  impliedly  denied 
with  surprising  frequency.  It  is  safe  to  say 
that  in  all  of  our  large  cities  there  is  a  class  of 
persons,  by  no  means  inconsiderable  in  number, 
who  look  upon  the  tax-supported  schools  as 
they  look  upon  almshouses  and  asylums.  Such 
persons  regard  the  schools  as  a  part  of  the 
community's  charitable  or  philanthropic  equip- 
ment. In  my  view,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
schools  are  a  part  of  the  community's  life. 
They  are  not  merely  to  give  relief  or  shelter 
to  individuals,  they  are  to  minister  to  the 
democratic  ideal.  The  very  children  who  sit 
on  the  benches  are  regarded  not  merely  as 
children,  interesting,  lovable,  precious,  but  as 
future  citizens  of  a  democracy  with  all  the 
privileges  and  responsibilities  which  that  im- 
plies. Over  seventy  years  ago  Daniel  Webster 
stated  this  principle  in  language  which  cannot 
be  improved: 

"  For  the  purpose  of  public  instruction,"  said  Webster, 
in  his  oration  at  Plymouth  on  Forefathers'  Day  in  1820, 


oo 


8    SOME  FUNDAMENTAL  PRINCIPLES 


Daniel 
Webster  on 
taxation  for 
public 
instruction 


"we  hold  every  man  subject  to  taxation  in  proportion  to 
his  property,  and  we  look  not  to  the  question  whether  he 
himself  have  or  have  not  children  to  be  benefited  by  the 
education  for  which  he  pays.  We  regard  it  as  a  wise  and 
liberal  system  of  police,  by  which  property,  and  life,  and 
the  peace  of  society  are  secured.  We  seek  to  prevent  in 
some  measure  the  extension  of  the  penal  code  by  inspiring 
a  salutary  and  conservative  principle  of  virtue  and  of 
knowledge  in  an  early  age.  We  strive  to  excite  a  feeling 
of  respectability,  and  a  sense  of  character,  by  enlarging 
the  capacity  and  increasing  the  sphere  of  intellectual  en- 
joyment. By  general  instruction,  we  seek,  as  far  as  pos- 
sible, to  purify  the  whole  moral  atmosphere;  to  keep  good 
sentiments  uppermost,  and  to  turn  the  strong  current  of 
feeling  and  opinion,  as  well  as  the  censures  of  the  law  and 
the  denunciations  of  religion,  against  immorality  and 
crime.  We  hope  for  a  security  beyond  the  law,  and  above 
the  law,  in  the  prevalence  of  an  enlightened  and  well- 
principled  moral  sentiment.  .  .  .  And  knowing  that  our 
government  rests  directly  upon  the  public  will,  in  order 
that  we  may  preserve  it  we  endeavor  to  give  a  safe  and 
proper  direction  to  that  public  will.  We  do  not,  indeed, 
expect  all  men  to  be  philosophers  or  statesmen;  but  we 
confidently  trust,  and  our  expectation  of  the  duration  of 
our  system  of  government  rests  upon  that  trust,  that,  by 
the  diffusion  of  general  knowledge,  and  good  and  virtuous 
sentiments,  the  political  fabric  may  be  secure  as  well 
against  open  violence  and  overthrow  as  against  the  slow, 
but  sure,  undermining  of  licentiousness." 


Here  we  have  in  the  words  of  our  greatest 
expounder  of  the  underlying  principles  of  Amer- 


OF  AMERICAN  EDUCATION  339 

ican  polity  a  statement  of  the  philosophical 
basis  upon  which  our  tax-supported  school 
system  rests.  We  may  wish  that  these  schools 
did  many  things  differently;  we  may  not  have 
children  to  send  to  their  class  rooms;  never- 
theless, they  are  our  schools  because  we  are 
American  citizens,  and  we  owe  them  our  loyal 
service  as  well  as  our  ungrudging  support. 
Any  one  who  wishes,  for  personal,  social,  or 
religious  reasons,  to  have  his  child  receive  a 
training  other  than  that  which  the  tax-sup- 
ported schools  give,  is  at  liberty  to  make  such 
provision  for  his  child  as  he  chooses;  but  he 
is  not  thereby  released  from  the  obligation 
resting  upon  him  as  a  citizen  to  contribute  to 
the  support  of  the  tax-supported  schools.  It 
follows,  too,  that  the  parents  of  those  who  are 
pupils  in  the  tax-supported  schools  have  no 
peculiar  rights  in  connection  with  the  policy  of 
those  schools  that  are  not  shared  by  all  other 
citizens.  The  schools  are  for  the  people  as  a 
whole,  not  for  those  of  a  district  or  ward,  or 
of  a  political  party  or  religious  communion, 
or  for  those  who  are  either  poor  or  rich.  We 
poison  our  democracy  at  its  source  if  we  per- 
mit any  qualification  of  this  fundamental  prin- 
ciple. 

It   is   sometimes   gravely   argued   that   posi- 


34Q    SOME  FUNDAMENTAL  PRINCIPLES 

tions  as  school  officers  or  teachers  should  be 
given  only  to  those  who  live,  at  the  moment, 
in  the  civil  community  or  subdivision  in  which 
the  school  in  question  is  situated.  This  is  the 
theory  that  the  schools  exist  not  for  the  people 
or  for  the  children,  but  in  order  that  places 
may  be  provided  for  the  friends,  relatives,  and 
neighbors  of  those  who  are  charged  for  the 
time  being  with  the  power  of  appointment. 
It  is  an  undemocratic  theory,  because  it  sub- 
stitutes a  privileged  class  for  open  competition 
among  the  best  qualified.  Pushed  to  its  logical 
extreme,  it  would  look  first  in  the  ranks  of  the 
descendants  of  the  aborigines  for  persons  to 
appoint  to  posts  in  the  educational  system. 
Very  few  Americans  live  where  their  grand- 
parents lived,  and  it  is  usually  those  who  have 
come  most  recently  to  a  city,  town,  or  village 
who  are  loudest  in  insisting  that  no  "outsider," 
as  the  saying  is,  be  given  a  place  as  teacher 
or  superintendent.  The  democratic  theory,  on 
the  contrary,  asks  only  for  the  best,  and  if  the 
community  cannot  provide  the  best  it  holds 
that  such  community  should  enrich  itself  by 
bringing  in  the  best  from  wherever  it  is  to  be 
had.  As  teaching  becomes  a  profession,  the 
teacher  and  school  officer  will  acquire  a  pro- 
fessional   reputation    and    status    which    will 


OF  AMERICAN  EDUCATION  341 

make  short  work  of  town,  county,   and  even 
State  boundaries. 

These  three  principles  have  been  chosen  for  Three 

1  1       •  1  •  1  fundamental 

presentation    and    emphasis    at   this   time    be-  principies  of 
cause,  although  each  of  them  is  often  denied,  American 
I  believe  them  to  underlie  our  whole  educa- 
tional system,  and  to  condition  all  clear  think- 
ing and  right  action  concerning  it.     They  are, 
briefly,  that: 

1.  American  education  is  far  wider  than  the 
system  of  tax-supported  schools  and  universi- 
ties, numerous  and  excellent  as  those  schools 
and  universities  are.  All  schools,  colleges,  and 
universities,  tax-supported  or  not,  are  public 
in  the  important  sense  that  they  all  reflect  and 
represent  some  part  or  phase  of  our  national 
life  and  character. 

2.  There  is  no  restriction  upon  the  amount, 
kind,  or  variety  of  education  which  a  district, 
town,  or  city  may  furnish,  save  that  which  is 
found  in  the  willingness  or  unwillingness  of 
citizens  to  vote  the  necessary  taxes. 

3.  The  tax-supported  schools  are  public 
schools  in  the  fullest  possible  sense,  and  are  not 
maintained  for  the  benefit  of  persons  of  any 
special  class  or  condition,  or  from  any  motive 


342  AMERICAN  EDUCATION 

which  may  properly  be  described  as  charitable 
or  philanthropic. 

The  constant  application  of  these  principles 
in  educational  debates  and  discussions  would 
bring  definiteness  and  clearness  into  many 
places  that  are  now  dark  and  uncertain,  and 
would  greatly  promote  the  interest  which  we 
all  have  at  heart — the  conservation  and  up- 
building of  our  American  democracy. 


XVII 
EDUCATION  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 


An  Introduction  to  a  series  of  monographs  contributed 
by  the  State  of  New  York  to  the  United  States  Edu- 
cational Exhibit  at  the  Paris  Exposition  of  1900 


EDUCATION  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

Spontaneity  is  the  keynote  of  education  in 
the  United  States.  Its  varied  form,  its  uneven 
progress,  its  lack  of  symmetry,  its  practical 
effectiveness,  are  all  due  to  the  fact  that  it  has 
sprung,  unbidden  and  unforced,  from  the  needs 
and  aspirations  of  the  people.  Local  prefer- 
ence and  individual  initiative  have  been  ruling 
forces.  What  men  have  wished  for  that  they 
have  done.  They  have  not  waited  for  State 
assistance  or  for  State  control.  As  a  result, 
there  is,  in  the  European  sense,  no  American 
system  of  education.  There  is  no  national 
educational  administrative  machinery  and  no 
national  legislative  authority  over  education 
in  the  several  States.  The  bureau  of  education 
at  Washington  was  not  established  until  1867, 
and  save  in  one  or  two  minor  respects,  its  func- 
tions are  wholly  advisory.  It  is  absolutely 
dependent  upon  the  good-will  of  the  educa- 
tional officials  of  the  States,  counties,  and 
municipalities  and  upon  that  of  the  adminis- 
trative officers  of  privately  conducted  institu- 

345 


Government 
end  education 


346    EDUCATION  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

tions,  for  the  admirable  and  authoritative 
statistics  which  it  collects  and  publishes  year 
by  year.  That  these  statistics  are  so  complete 
and  so  accurate  is  evidence  that  the  moral 
influence  and  authority  of  the  bureau  of  edu- 
cation are  very  great,  and  that  it  commands 
a  co-operation  as  cordial  as  it  is  universal. 
National  But  the  National  Government  has,  from  the 

very  beginning,  made  enormous  grants  of  land 
and  money  in  aid  of  education  in  the  several 
States.  The  portion  of  the  public  domain 
hitherto  set  apart  by  Congress  for  the  endow- 
ment of  public  education  amounts  to  86,138,- 
473  acres,  or  134,591  English  square  miles. 
This  is  an  area  larger  than  that  of  the  six  New 
England  States,  New  York,  New  Jersey,  Mary- 
land, and  Delaware  added  together.  It  is  a 
portion  of  the  earth's  surface  as  great  as  the 
kingdom  of  Prussia,  about  seven-tenths  as 
great  as  France,  and  considerably  greater  than 
the  combined  areas  of  Great  Britain,  including 
the  Channel  Islands,  and  the  kingdom  of  Hol- 
land. The  aggregate  value  of  lands  and  money 
given  for  education  by  the  National  Govern- 
ment, as  Commissioner  Harris  shows  in  de- 
tail,1 is  nearly  #300,000,000. 

1  Education  in  the  United  States  (new  edition,  New_York,  19 10), 
I  :q6. 


EDUCATION  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES    347 

The  uniform  tendency  of  recent  develop-  Education  a 
ment,  as  marked  by  judicial  decisions  and  by  State  function 
legislative  enactments,  is  to  treat  all  publicly 
controlled  education  as  part  of  a  slowly  form- 
ing system  which  has  its  basis  in  the  authority 
of  the  State  government,  as  distinguished  from 
that  of  the  nation  on  the  one  hand  and  from 
that  of  the  locality  on  the  other.  This  system 
may  be  highly  centralized,  as  in  New  York, 
or  the  contrary,  as  in  Massachusetts,  but  the 
theory  underlying  it  is  the  same.  The  two 
fundamental  principles  which  are  emerging  as 
the  result  of  a  century's  growth  are,  first,  that 
education  is  a  matter  of  State  concern,  and 
not  merely  one  of  local  preference;  and,  second, 
that  State  inspection  and  supervision  shall 
be  applied  so  as  to  stimulate  and  encourage 
local  interest  in  education  and  to  avoid  the 
deadening  routine  of  a  mechanical  uniformity. 
The  State  acts  to  provide  adequate  oppor- 
tunity for  elementary  education  for  all  chil- 
dren, and  abundant  opportunity  for  secondary 
and  higher  education.  But  the  State  claims 
no  monopoly  in  education.  It  protects  private 
initiative,  whether  stimulated  by  religious  zeal, 
philanthropy,  or  desire  for  gain,  in  doing  the 
same  thing.  It  is  not  customary,  in  the  United 
States,  for  State  officials  to  inspect  or  to  inter- 


348    EDUCATION  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

fere  with  the  educational  work  of  privately 
established  institutions.  When  these  are  char- 
tered bodies,  they  are  subject  simply  to  the 
general  provisions  of  law  governing  corpora- 
tions of  their  class.  When  they  are  not  char- 
tered bodies,  the  State  treats  them  as  it  does 
any  private  business  undertaking:  it  lets  them 
alone.  Standards  of  efficiency  and  of  profes- 
sional attainment  are  regulated  in  these  in- 
stitutions by  those  in  neighboring  public 
institutions,  by  local  public  opinion,  and  by 
competition.  Sometimes  these  forces  operate 
to  raise  standards,  sometimes  to  lower  them. 
New  York  has  gone  further  than  any  other 
State  in  attempting  to  define  and  to  classify 
all  educational  institutions,  private  as  well 
as  public.  Pennsylvania  has  recently  entered 
upon  a  similar  policy;  and  it  is  being  urged  in 
other  States  as  well.  The  public  elementary 
schools  are  more  or  less  carefully  regulated  by 
law,  both  as  to  length  of  school  term,  as  to 
subjects  taught,  and  as  to  the  necessary  quali- 
fications of  the  teachers.  The  public  secondary 
schools,  familiarly  known  as  high  schools,  and 
the  State  universities  are  usually  without  any 
such  regulation. 

The  term  "common  schools"  is  often  used 
in  the  United  States  of  the  public  elementary 


EDUCATION  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES    349 

schools  alone;  but  the  more  correct  use  is  to  statistics  of 
include  under  it  all  public  elementary  schools,  ^  gtion 
the  first  eight  years  of  the  course  of  study, 
and  all  public  secondary  schools,  maintaining  a 
four  years'  course,  as  a  rule,  in  advance  of  the 
elementary  school.  In  1897-8  the  total  esti- 
mated population  of  the  United  States  was 
72,737,100.  Of  this  number  21,458,294 — a 
number  nearly  equal  to  the  population  of  Aus- 
tria— were  of  school  age,  as  it  is  called;  that 
is,  they  were  from  5  to  18  years  of  age.  This 
is  not  the  age  covered  by  the  compulsory  edu- 
cation laws,  but  the  school  age  as  the  term  is 
used  by  the  United  States  census.  By  school 
age  is  meant  the  period  during  which  a  pupil 
may  attend  a  public  school  and  during  which 
a  share  of  the  public  money  may  be  used  for 
his  education.  It  is  obvious,  then,  that  per- 
sons who  have  satisfactorily  completed  both  an 
elementary  and  a  secondary  course  of  study 
may  still  be  returned  as  of  "school  age"  and 
as  "not  attending  any  school."  This  fact 
has  always  to  be  taken  into  account  in  the 
interpretation  of  American  educational  sta- 
tistics. 

In  1897-8  the  number  of  pupils  entered  upon 
the  registers  of  the  common  schools — that  is, 
the  public  elementary  and  the  public  secondary 


35o    EDUCATION  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

schools — was  15,038,636,  or  20.68  per  cent  of 
the  total  population  and  70.08  per  cent  of  the 
persons  of  "school  age."  The  total  popula- 
tion of  Scotland  and  Ireland  is  only  about  half 
so  many  as  this.  For  these  pupils  409,193 
teachers  were  employed,  of  which  number 
131,750,  or  32.2  per  cent  were  men.  The  wo- 
men teachers  in  the  common  schools  num- 
bered 277,443.  The  teachers,  if  brought  to- 
gether, would  outnumber  the  population  of 
Munich.  The  women  alone  far  more  than  equal 
the  population  of  Bordeaux.  No  fewer  than 
242,390  buildings  were  in  use  for  common-school 
purposes.  Their  aggregate  value  was  nearly 
#500,000,000  (#492,703,781). 

The  average  length  of  the  annual  school 
session  was  143. 1  days,  an  increase  since  1870 
of  n  days.  In  some  States  the  length  of  the 
annual  school  session  is  very  much  above  this 
average.  It  rises,  for  example,  to  191  days  in 
Rhode  Island,  186  in  Massachusetts,  185  in 
New  Jersey,  176  in  New  York,  172  in  Cali- 
fornia, 162  in  Iowa,  and  160  in  Michigan  and 
Wisconsin.  The  shortest  average  annual  ses- 
sion is  in  North  Carolina  (68.8  days)  and  in 
Arkansas  (69  days).  Taking  the  entire  edu- 
cational resources  of  the  United  States  into 
consideration,   each   individual  of  the   popula- 


EDUCATION  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES    351 

tion  would  receive  school  instruction  for  5 
years  of  200  days  each.  Since  1870  this  has 
increased  from  3.36  years,  and  since  1880  from 
3.96  years,  of  200  days  each. 

The  average  monthly  salary  of  men  teachers 
in  the  common  schools  was  $45.16  in  1897-8; 
that  of  the  women  teachers  was  $38.74.  In 
the  last  forty  years  the  average  salary  of  com- 
mon-school teachers  has  increased  86.3  per  cent 
in  cities  and  74.9  per  cent  in  the  rural  districts. 
The  total  receipts  for  common-school  purposes 
in  1897-8  were  almost  $200,000,000  ($199,- 
317,597),  of  which  vast  sum  4.6  per  cent  was 
income  from  permanent  funds,  17.9  per  cent 
was  raised  by  State-school  tax,  67.3  per  cent 
by  local  (county,  municipal,  or  school  district) 
tax,  and  10.2  came  from  other  sources.  The 
common-school  expenditure  per  capita  of  popu- 
lation was  $2.67;  for  each  pupil,  it  averaged 
$18.86.  Teachers'  salaries  absorb  63.8  percent 
($123,809,412)  of  the  expenditure  for  common 
schools. 

The  commissioner  of  education  believes  the 
normal  standard  of  enrolment  in  private  edu- 
cational institutions  to  be  about  15  per  cent 
of  the  total  enrolment.  At  the  present  time 
it  is  only  a  little  more  than  9  per  cent,  having 
been  reduced  apparently  by  the  long  period  of 


352     EDUCATION  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

commercial  and  financial  depression  which  has 
but  lately  ended. 

Illiteracy  in  the  United  States  can  hardly  be 
compared  fairly  with  that  in  European  coun- 
tries because  of  the  fact  that  an  overwhelming 
proportion  of  the  illiterates  are  found  among 
the  negroes  and  among  the  immigrants  who 
continue  to  pour  into  the  country  in  large 
numbers.  The  eleventh  census  of  the  United 
States,  taken  in  1890,  showed  that  the  per- 
centage of  illiterates  to  the  whole  population 
was  13.3,  a  decrease  of  3.7  per  cent  since  the 
census  of  1880.  But  the  percentage  of  illiterates 
among  the  native  white  population  (being  73.2 
per  cent  of  the  whole)  was  only  6.2  of  those  ten 
years  of  age  or  older.  Among  the  foreign-born 
white  population  (14.6  per  cent  of  the  whole) 
the  percentage  of  illiteracy  was  13.1,  and 
among  the  colored  population  (12.2  of  the 
whole)  it  was  56.8.  That  is,  nearly  one-half 
of  the  whole  number  of  illiterates  in  the  United 
States  were  colored.  Only  in  Florida,  Mis- 
sissippi, West  Virginia,  Virginia,  Kentucky, 
Georgia,  Arkansas,  Tennessee,  South  Carolina, 
Alabama,  Louisiana,  North  Carolina,  and  New 
Mexico  was  the  percentage  of  illiteracy  among 
the  native  white  population  greater  than  10. 
This  percentage  fell  below  2  in  New  Hampshire 


EDUCATION  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES    353 

(1.5),  Massachusetts  (0.8),  Connecticut  (1), 
New  York  (1.8),  District  of  Columbia  (1.7), 
Minnesota  (1.4),  Iowa  (1.8),  North  Dakota 
(1.8),  South  Dakota  (1.2),  Nebraska  (1.3), 
Montana  (1.6),  Wyoming  (1.3),  Nevada  (0.8), 
Idaho  (1.9),  Washington  (1.3),  Oregon  (1.8),  and 
California  (1.7).     In  Kansas  it  was  exactly  2. 

It  is  not  infrequently  charged  by  those  who  Education 
have  but  a  superficial  knowledge  of  the  facts,  and  crune 
or  who  are  disposed  to  weaken  the  force  of 
the  argument  for  State  education,  that  one 
effect  of  the  system  of  public  education  in  the 
United  States  has  been  to  increase  the  pro- 
portion of  criminals,  particularly  those  whose 
crime  is  against  property.  The  facts  in  refuta- 
tion of  this  charge  are  so  simple  and  so  indis- 
putable that  they  should  always  be  kept  in 
mind. 

In  the  first  place,  it  must  be  remembered 
that  communities  which  maintain  schools  have 
higher  standards  as  to  what  is  lawful  than 
communities  which  are  without  the  civiliza- 
tion which  the  presence  of  a  school  system 
indicates,  and  that,  therefore,  more  acts  are 
held  to  be  criminal  and  more  crimes  are  de- 
tected and  punished  in  a  community  of  the 
former  sort  than  in  one  of  the  latter.  A  greater 
number   of  arrests   may   signify   better   police 


354    EDUCATION  IN  TEE  UNITED  STATES 

administration    rather    than    an    increase    in 
crime. 

Again,  where  records  have  been  carefully 
kept,  it  appears  that  the  illiterate  portion  of 
the  population  furnishes  from  six  to  eight 
times  its  proper  proportion  of  criminals.  This 
was  established  for  a  large  area  by  an  exten- 
sive investigation  carried  on  by  the  bureau  of 
education  in  1870. 

The  history  of  the  past  fifty  years  in  the 
State  of  Massachusetts  is  alone  a  conclusive 
answer  to  the  contention  that  education  begets 
crime.  In  1850  the  jails  and  prisons  of  that 
State  held  8,761  persons,  while  in  1885  the 
number  had  increased  to  three  times  as  many 
(26,651).  On  the  surface,  therefore,  crime  had 
greatly  increased.  But  analysis  of  the  crimes 
shows  that  serious  offenses  had  fallen  off  40 
per  cent  during  this  period,  while  the  vigilance 
with  which  minor  misdemeanors  were  followed 
up  had  produced  the  great  apparent  increase 
in  crime.  While  drunkenness  had  greatly 
fallen  off  in  proportion  to  the  population,  yet 
commitments  for  drunkenness  alone  multiplied 
from  3,341  in  1850  to  18,701  in  1885.  The  com- 
mitments for  crimes  other  than  drunkenness 
were  1  to  every  183  of  the  population  in  1850, 
and  1  to  every  244  of  the  population  in  1885. 


EDUCATION  IN  TEE  UNITED  STATES    355 

In  other  words,  as  has  been  pointed  out,  persons 
and  property  had  become  safer,  while  drunken- 
ness had  become  more  dangerous — to  the 
drunkard. 

The  American  people  are  convinced  that 
their  public  school  system  has  justified  the 
argument  of  Daniel  Webster,  made  in  1820: 
"For  the  purpose  of  public  instruction,"  he 
said,  "we  hold  every  man  subject  to  taxation 
in  proportion  to  his  property,  and  we  look  not 
to  the  question  whether  he  himself  have  or 
have  not  children  to  be  benefited  by  the  educa- 
tion for  which  he  pays;  we  regard  it  as  a  wise 
and  liberal  system  of  police,  by  which  property, 
and  life,  and  the  peace  of  society  are  secured. 
We  seek  to  prevent,  in  some  measure,  the  ex- 
tension of  the  penal  code  by  inspiring  a  salutary 
and  conservative  principle  of  virtue  and  of 
knowledge  in  an  early  age.  We  hope  to  excite 
a  feeling  of  respectability  and  a  sense  of  char- 
acter by  enlarging  the  capacities  and  increasing 

the    sphere    of   intellectual    enjoyment 

Knowing  that  our  government  rests  directly 
upon  the  public  will,  that  we  may  preserve  it 
we  endeavor  to  give  a  safe  and  proper  direc- 
tion to  the  public  will.  We  do  not,  indeed, 
expect  all  men  to  be  philosophers  or  states- 
men;   but  we  confidently  trust  ....  that  by 


356    EDUCATION  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

the  diffusion  of  general  knowledge,  and  good 
and  virtuous  sentiments,  the  political  fabric 
may  be  secure  as  well  against  open  violence 
and  overthrow  as  against  the  slow  but  sure 
undermining  of  licentiousness." 
Education  Where  the  public-school  term  in  the  United 

and  industry  gtates  [s  longest,  there  the  average  productive 
capacity  of  the  citizen  is  greatest.  This  can 
hardly  be  a  coincidence.  When  the  man  of 
science  finds  such  a  coincidence  as  this  in  his 
test-tube  or  balance,  he  proclaims  it  a  scientific 
discovery  proved  by  inductive  evidence.  The 
average  school  period  per  inhabitant,  taking 
the  United  States  as  a  whole,  was,  in  1897, 
4.3  years.  The  average  school  period  for  Mas- 
sachusetts is  7  years.  The  proportion,  there- 
fore, between  the  school  period  in  that  State 
and  the  school  period  in  the  whole  United 
States  is  as  70  to  43.  It  is  very  interesting  to 
note  that  the  proportion  between  the  produc- 
tive capacity  of  each  individual  in  Mas- 
sachusetts and  that  of  each  individual  in 
the  whole  United  States  is  as  66  to  37.  Edu- 
cation, 70  to  43;  productivity,  66  to  37.  On 
the  basis  of  306  working-days  in  Massachusetts, 
and  on  the  basis  of  a  population  something 
over  2,000,000,  this  means  that  every  citizen 
of    Massachusetts — man,    woman,    infant    in 


EDUCATION  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES    357 

arms — is  to  be  credited  with  a  productive 
capacity  every  year  of  #88.75  more  than  the 
average  for  the  United  States  as  a  whole.  Or 
to  put  it  in  the  most  striking  fashion,  it  means 
that  the  excess  of  productive  capacity  for  the 
State  of  Massachusetts  in  one  year  is  #200,- 
000,000,  or  about  20  times  the  cost  of  main- 
taining the  public  schools.  If  the  State  of 
North  Carolina,  for  example,  could  bring  it 
about  through  education  that  every  individual's 
productive  capacity  was  increased  10  cents  a 
day — that  is,  just  one-third  the  Massachusetts 
excess — for  306  working-days,  estimating  the 
population  roughly  at  1,750,000,  the  State 
would  be  better  off  in  the  next  calendar  year 
to  the  amount  of  #54,000,000.  If  the  increase 
could  equal  the  Massachusetts  excess  of  29 
cents,  North  Carolina  would  be  better  ofF  to 
the  extent  of  #160,000,000.  North  Carolina 
now  spends  less  than  #1,000,000  a  year  for 
public  education. 

The  number  of  public  secondary  schools,  Public 
high  schools,  in  the  United  States  in  1897-8  £^££f 
was  5,315,  employing  17,941  teachers  and  en- 
rolling 449,600  pupils.  Nearly  3,000  of  these 
schools  (2,832)  were  in  the  North  Central 
States.  The  rapid  increase  of  these  schools,  the 
flexibility  of  their  programme  of  studies,  and 


358    EDUCATION  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

the  growing  value  of  the  training  which  they 
offer  are  among  the  most  significant  educational 
facts  of  the  last  two  decades.  The  present 
rate  of  increase  of  secondary  school  pupils  is 
nearly  five  times  as  great  as  the  rate  of  in- 
crease of  the  population.  It  is  noteworthy, 
too,  that  nearly  50  per  cent  (4944)  of  the 
whole  number  of  secondary  school  pupils  are 
studying  Latin.  The  rate  of  increase  in  the 
number  of  the  pupils  who  study  Latin  is  fully 
twice  as  great  as  the  rate  of  increase  in  the 
number  of  secondary  school  students. 

Between  1890  and  1896,  while  the  number 
of  students  in  private  secondary  schools  in- 
creased 12  per  cent,  the  number  of  students 
in  public  secondary  schools  increased  87  per 
cent.  Further,  since  1893-4  the  number  of  pu- 
pils in  private  secondary  schools  has  steadily 
declined. 

The  number  of  colleges  in  the  United  States 
— 472,  excluding  those  for  women  only — is 
very  large.  Many  of  these  institutions,  small 
and  weak,  ill-equipped  and  ill-endowed,  are  fre- 
quently criticised  severely  for  endeavoring  to 
continue  the  struggle  for  existence.  This  criti- 
cism is,  in  part,  justifiable,  but  it  ought  not  to 
be  forgotten  that  almost  every  college  exerts  a 
helpful  influence  upon  the  life  of  its  locality. 


EDUCATION  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES    359 

The  fact  is  frequently  overlooked  that  all 
American  colleges  depend  for  their  students  in 
large  measure  upon  their  own  neighborhood. 
Few  draw  from  the  nation  at  large,  and  these 
few  draw  only  a  small  proportion  of  their  stu- 
dents from  beyond  the  confines  of  their  own 
State  or  the  limits  of  their  own  section  of  the 
country.  For  example,  of  the  28,000  (27,956) 
students  attending  colleges  in  the  North  Atlan- 
tic division,  26,393,  or  9441  Per  cent,  are  resi- 
dents of  the  States  included  in  that  division. 
Of  the  8,529  students  in  colleges  of  Massa- 
chusetts, 55.62  per  cent  are  residents  of  that 
State,  and  83.37  per  cent  are  residents  of  the 
North  Atlantic  division,  of  which  Massa- 
chusetts is  a  part.  In  Oregon  the  percentages 
rise  to  96.09  and  99.87,  respectively. 

The  development  of  universities  in  the  American 
United  States  has  taken  place  during  the 
present  generation.  The  name  "university" 
is,  in  America,  no  proper  index  to  the  charac- 
ter and  work  of  the  institution  which  bears 
it.  Professor  Perry  has  set  out  illustrations  of 
this  fact  with  great  clearness.1  Nevertheless, 
the  distinctions  between  secondary  school,  col- 
lege, and  university  are  more  widely  recognized 
each  year,  and  it  is  not  too  much  to  hope  that, 

1  Education  in  the  United  States  (New  York,  1910),  I  :  254. 


universities 


360    EDUCATION  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

in  course  of  time,  the  various  institutions  will 
adopt  the  names  which  properly  belong  to  each. 
The  definition  of  a  university  which  I  have 
suggested  elsewhere1  is  this:  "An  institution 
where  students,  adequately  trained  by  previous 
study  of  the  liberal  arts  and  sciences,  are  led 
into  special  fields  of  learning  and  research  by 
teachers  of  high  excellence  and  originality; 
and  where,  by  the  agency  of  museums,  labora- 
tories, and  publications,  knowledge  is  con- 
served, advanced,  and  disseminated."  In  this 
sense  there  are  at  least  half  a  dozen  American 
universities  now  in  existence,  and  as  many 
more  in  the  process  of  making.  These  univer- 
sities are  markedly  different  from  those  of 
France,  Germany,  and  Great  Britain,  but.  they 
respond  in  a  most  complete  way  to  the  educa- 
tional needs  of  the  American  people,  and  they 
are  playing  an  increasingly  important  part  in 
the  advancement  of  knowledge  and  the  devel- 
opment of  its  applications  to  problems  of  gov- 
ernment, of  industry,  and  of  commerce.  The 
administrators  of  American  universities  have 
studied  carefully  the  experience  of  European 
nations,  and  they  have  applied  the  result  of 
that  experience,  wherever  possible,  in  the  so- 
lution of  their  own  problems. 

1  See  p.  265. 


EDUCATION  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES    361 

The  variety  and  value  of  American  contri-  Literature  of 
butions  to  the  literature  of  education  are  education 
worthy  of  notice.  Nearly  300  periodical  pub- 
lications of  one  type  or  another  are  devoted 
mainly  to  education.  A  few  of  these  rank  with 
the  leading  educational  journals  of  the  world. 
Perhaps  the  publications  of  the  National 
Educational  Association,  a  voluntary  organiza- 
tion of  teachers  of  every  grade,  are  the  most 
characteristic  American  contributions.  They 
include  not  only  the  invaluable  series  of  annual 
Proceedings,  containing  papers  and  discussions 
by  the  leaders  of  American  education  for  a 
generation,  but  reports  upon  particular  sub- 
jects the  investigation  of  which  has  been  un- 
dertaken from  time  to  time  by  special  com- 
mittees. Among  the  subjects  so  reported  upon 
are  these:  Secondary  school  duties,  organiza- 
tion of  elementary  education,  rural  schools, 
college-entrance  requirements,  relation  of  pub- 
lic libraries  to  public  schools,  and  normal 
schools. 

The  most  valuable  official  publications  are 
these:  the  annual  reports,  issued  since  1868, 
by  the  United  States  commissioner  of  educa- 
tion, those  since  1889  being  particularly  note- 
worthy; the  reports  issued  by  Horace  Mann 
as  secretary  of  the  State  board  of  education 


362    EDUCATION  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

of  Massachusetts,  1838-49;  the  twelve  volumes 
of  reports  issued  by  William  T.  Harris,  as 
superintendent  of  the  public  schools  of  St. 
Louis,  Missouri,  1867-79;  ana<  the  annual  re- 
ports of  Charles  W.  Eliot  as  president  of  Har- 
vard University,  1871-99.  The  annual  reports 
of  State  and  city  superintendents  of  schools  are 
a  storehouse  of  information  and  often  contain 
elaborate  discussions  of  educational  theory  and 
practise. 

One  fact  in  American  education  is  certainly 
unique.  That  is  the  vast  sum  given  in  aid  or 
endowment  of  education  by  individuals.  It 
recalls  the  best  traditions  of  the  princes  and 
churchmen  of  the  Middle  Ages,  but  is  on  a 
vastly  larger  scale.  For  some  time  past  the 
income  of  Harvard  University  from  this  source 
has  been  nearly  or  quite  a  million  dollars  an- 
nually. In  1898-9  the  total  amount  of  gifts 
to  Harvard  University  for  purposes  of  general 
or  special  endowment  was  $1,383,460.77,  and 
for  immediate  use  $161,368.90.  Columbia 
University  has  received  in  the  last  decade 
$6,736,482  in  money  and  in  land.  An  unoffi- 
cial estimate  of  the  amount  given  by  indi- 
viduals during  the  year  1899  for  universities, 
colleges,  schools,  and  libraries  is  over  $70,000,- 
000.    The  tendency  which  these  colossal  figures 


EDUCATION  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES    363 

indicate  is  one  of  the  most  fortunate  and  most 
hopeful  in  American  life.  The  makers  and 
holders  of  great  fortunes  are  pouring  out  from 
their  excess  for  the  development  of  the  higher 
life  and  greater  productive  capacity  of  the 
people.  The  religious  bodies,  in  particular  the 
Reman  Catholic  Church,  are  doing  the  same 
thing  upon  a  very  large  scale.  The  convic- 
tion that  education  is  fundamental  to  demo- 
cratic civilization  is  perhaps  the  most  wide- 
spread among  the  American  people.  Public 
funds  and  private  wealth  are  alike  given  un- 
stintingly  in  support  of  it. 

Education,  conceived  as  a  social  institution,  Study  of 
is  now  being  studied  in  the  United  States  more 
widely  and  more  energetically  than  ever  be- 
fore. The  chairs  of  education  in  the  great 
universities  are  the  natural  leaders  in  this 
movement.  It  is  carried  on  also  in  normal 
schools,  in  teachers'  training  classes,  and  in 
countless  voluntary  associations  and  clubs  in 
every  part  of  the  country.  Problems  of  or- 
ganization and  administration,  of  educational 
theory,  of  practical  procedure  in  teaching,  of 
child  nature,  of  hygiene  and  sanitation  are 
engaging  attention  everywhere.  Herein  lies 
the  promise  of  great  advances  in  the  future. 
Enthusiasm,  earnestness,  and  scientific  method 


364    EDUCATION  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

are  all  applied  to  the  study  of  education  in  a 
way  which  makes  it  certain  that  the  results 
will  be  fruitful.  The  future  of  democracy  is 
bound  up  with  the  future  of  education. 


XVIII 

DISCIPLINE  AND  THE  SOCIAL  AIM  OF 
EDUCATION 


A  paper  read  before  the  American  Academy  of  Arts  and 
Letters  at  Boston,  Massachusetts,  November  19,  1915 


DISCIPLINE  AND  THE  SOCIAL  AIM  OF 
EDUCATION 


All  training  implies  an  end  or  purpose.  The  Training 
systematic  development  of  knowledge  and  ca-  JJJJjp^ 
pacity,  and  the  systematic  formation  of  habits 
of  thought  and  of  action,  would  have  no  signifi- 
cance or  value  unless  they  aimed  to  accomplish 
some  definite  result.  Moralists  and  political 
philosophers  have  toiled  for  ages  to  formu- 
late and  to  define  an  end  or  object  of  training 
and  discipline,  and  the  result  is  some  of  the 
most  illuminating  and  inspiring  of  the  world's 
literature. 

A  moment's  reflection  will  make  it  plain  that  Form  of 
the  purpose  of  training  and  of  discipline  will  *^2ned 
depend  upon  the  philosophy  of  life  which  con-  by  one's 
trols   our   thinking   and   our   action.     If  one's  Jf  h°fg°p  y 
philosophy  of  life,  so  called,  is  to  have  no  phi- 
losophy, but  only  to  try  to  deal  with  each  situ- 
ation as  it  arises  and  to  make  the  best  of  it, 
then  the  end  and  purpose  of  training  will  be 
simply  that  one  may  drift  aimlessly  about  on 
a  sea  which  he  has  no  instruments  to  measure, 
and   be  borne  by  currents  which   he  has   no 

367 


368 


DISCIPLINE  AND  THE 


power  to  divert  or  to  withstand.  It  is  appar- 
ent, too,  that  under  the  influence  of  a  system 
of  caste,  or  of  a  uniform  religious  belief,  or  of 
an  all-controlling  national  aim  or  purpose,  dis- 
cipline and  training  will  be  given  a  precise  and 
definite  form.  The  younger  generation  will  be 
taught  either  to  feel  the  force  of  the  caste  dis- 
tinctions and  to  enter  into  a  caste  with  all  that 
implies,  or  to  accept  the  formulas  and  the  rit- 
ual of  a  religion  to  which  it  gives  inherited  ad- 
herence, or  to  subject  itself  to  the  legally 
organized  powers  and  organs  of  the  state  and 
to  do  their  will  uncomplainingly  and  as  effec- 
tively as  possible. 

For  the  great  modern  democracies,  no  one  of 
these  ends  or  aims  of  discipline  is  possible,  since 
these  democracies  rest  upon  the  principles  of 
equality  before  the  law  and  of  opportunity  open 
freely  to  talent  of  every  kind.  The  purpose 
and  function  of  discipline  in  a  democracy  are 
necessarily  quite  different  from  those  that  ap- 
prove themselves  in  an  absolute  monarchy  or 
in  a  nation  which  accepts  the  principles  that 
the  state  is  different  from,  and  superior  to,  the 
individuals  that  compose  it,  and  that  it  is  not 
subject  to  the  moral  and  legal  limitations  which 
bind  the  individual.  Membership  in  such  a 
state  is  not  citizenship  but  subordination.    Such 


SOCIAL  AIM  OF  EDUCATION  369 

a  state  may  attain,  for  a  time  at  least,  a  high 
degree  of  social  and  political  effectiveness,  but 
this  effectiveness  will  be  gained  at  the  cost  of 
civil  liberty;  and  the  price  is  far  too  high  to 
pay.  The  educational  system  of  a  nation  which 
accepts  a  form  of  political  philosophy  such  as 
this  will  naturally  aim  at  two  things.  It  will 
aim  to  train  the  few  for  effective  leadership  and 
it  will  aim  to  train  the  many  for  effective  sub- 
ordination. It  will  fix  a  substantial  barrier  be- 
tween those  schools  and  institutions  which  train 
for  leadership  and  those  schools  and  institutions 
which  train  for  subordination.  This  subordina- 
tion may  be  political,  or  it  may  be  social,  or  it 
may  be  economic,  or  it  may  be  military,  but 
if  it  exists  there  can  be  no  such  thing  as  com- 
mon schools  in  the  nation.  The  conception  of 
common  schools  and  the  very  name  itself  are 
the  product  of  the  social  philosophy  of  democ- 
racy. The  common  school  is  not  and  cannot 
be  a  class  school.  It  is  a  school  for  the  chil- 
dren of  the  whole  people  in  which  they  are  to 
be  given  that  instruction  and  that  discipline 
which  lay  the  foundations  not  for  leadership  in 
a  state  and  not  for  subordination  in  a  state, 
but  for  citizenship  of  a  state;  and  these  are 
the  same  for  all. 

The  ethical  and  the  social  aims  of  education 


37o 


DISCIPLINE  AND  THE 


Discipline 

and 

democracy 


are  accomplished  in  part  by  example,  in  part 
by  precept,  and  in  still  larger  part  by  practise. 
The  inculcation  of  virtue  by  precept  is  far  less 
effective  than  the  inculcation  of  virtue  by  ex- 
ample, and  the  inculcation  of  virtue  by  example 
requires  for  its  completion  the  habitual  prac- 
tise of  that  virtue  by  the  pupil.  This  explains 
why,  in  the  elementary  and  secondary  schools, 
so  little  attention  is  paid  to  formal  instruction 
in  morals  and  in  duties,  and  why  so  much  em- 
phasis is  properly  laid  upon  the  personality  of 
the  teacher  and  upon  the  actual  behavior  and 
habits  of  the  pupils. 

The  problem  of  discipline  in  the  educational 
system  of  a  democracy  is  the  world-old  prob- 
lem of  reconciling  liberty  with  order,  progress 
with  permanence,  and  government  with  justice. 
Not  until  mankind  is  itself  perfect  will  this 
problem  be  finally  and  completely  solved.  The 
pressing  question  that  now  arises  to  perplex 
the  democracies  of  the  world  is  how  to  secure 
increased  national  effectiveness  without  the  sac- 
rifice of  liberty,  how  to  move  forward  toward 
the  attainment  of  a  national  purpose  without 
calling  upon  the  agents  and  organs  of  despot- 
ism to  take  command.  In  other  words,  the 
question  is  how  to  reconcile  the  civil  liberty  of 
the   individual   with    an    increasing    degree   of 


SOCIAL  AIM  OF  EDUCATION         371 

national  organization  for  national  needs  and 
with  a  steadily  increasing  sense  of  individual 
responsibility  for  a  collective  purpose  or  policy. 
This  is  the  precise  topic  which  most  concerns  the 
philosophers  of  to-day  who  would  throw  light 
upon  the  difficult  problems  of  the  moment  as 
these  arise  in  education,  in  ethics,  and  in  politics. 

It  is  of  the  essence  of  democracy  that  every 
individual  shall  be  called  upon  to  do  the  best 
that  is  in  him  and  to  do  this  in  such  manner  as 
not  to  limit  the  similar  right  and  the  equal 
opportunity  of  every  other  individual  to  do 
the  same.  Therefore,  each  individual's  share 
in  collective  action  or  in  the  accomplishment 
of  a  collective  purpose  must  be  something 
which  he  imposes  upon  himself,  and  not  some- 
thing which  is  imposed  upon  him  by  force  from 
without  or  by  the  authority  of  other  wills  than 
his  own.  The  abnormal  or  atypical  individ- 
ual must,  of  course,  be  dealt  with  in  abnormal 
and  atypical  ways,  but  the  normal  human 
being  must  be  called  upon  to  become  respon- 
sible for  himself  and  to  render  service  to  the 
community  as  his  own  free  act  and  not  in  re- 
sponse to  the  compulsion  of  another. 

There  can  be  no  dispute  as  to  the  fact  that  The 
society  is  composed  of  individuals,  but  there  despotis™  of 

J  r  7  a  majority 

appears  to  be  wide  difference  of  opinion  as  to 


372  DISCIPLINE  AND  THE 

the  relation  in  which  society  should  stand  to 
the   individuals   who    compose    it.     There    are 
those  who,  confident  of  the  wisdom  of  their  own 
opinions  and  judgment,  impatient  of  the  slow 
sagacity  of  nature,   and   dissatisfied   with   the 
imperfect   results   of  education,   would   extend 
the  rule  of  compulsion  over  the  conduct  and 
habits  of  men  from  the  necessary  to  the  merely 
expedient,  and  from  the  highly  important  to 
the  trivial  and  insignificant.     It  is  just  now  a 
common  observation  that  whenever  a  majority, 
however  fickle  or  however  fortuitous,  can   be 
obtained  in  support  of  a  given  restriction  upon 
others  which  commends  itself  to  their  own  judg- 
ment or  their  own  feelings,  they  will  promptly 
impose   that    restriction    upon   all   men  within 
reach  of  their  authority,  quite  regardless  of  its 
ultimate  moral  and  social  effects.     This  is  the 
disposition  which,  for  many  centuries,  has  been 
responsible  at  one  time  or  another  for  sump- 
tuary legislation  of  various  kinds,  and  for  the 
annoying   and   foolish   restrictions  which   have 
from   time   to   time   been   imposed    upon   men 
without   any   permanent   result   other  than   to 
make  clear  the  unwisdom  of  the  principles  and 
policies  which  guide  such  action.     This  is  the 
danger  that  is  always  present  in  those  move- 
ments which,  to  those  who  are  enthusiastic  in 


SOCIAL  AIM  OF  EDUCATION         373 

their  support,  and  frequently  high-minded,  ap- 
pear to  make  for  moral  and  economic  progress 
and  prosperity,  but  which  in  reality  have  an 
opposite  effect  because  they  extend  the  area  of 
compulsion  over  conduct. 

Sound  discipline  has  a  higher  social  aim  than  individualism, 

,  .  .  .  ,,  .1<rr  ,j      collectivism 

this  and  it  proceeds  by  a  quite  dilterent  method.  and 
It  takes  its  start  from  the  capacity  and  the  edu-  institutionai- 
cability  of  the  individual.  Upon  this  it  makes 
the  most  rigorous  and  insistent  demands.  It 
aims  to  develop  personality,  self,  to  the  utmost, 
but  it  aims  to  develop  it  as  selfhood  and  not  as 
selfishness.  The  gap  between  selfhood  and  self- 
ishness is  as  wide  as  the  gap  between  a  sound 
and  an  unsound  individualism.  Unsound  in- 
dividualism errs  on  its  side  as  completely  as 
does  collectivism  on  the  other  side.  The  one 
means  an  eventual  anarchy  where  right  is  de- 
termined by  the  rule  of  might;  the  other  means 
a  stagnation  where  right  is  determined  by  tra- 
dition and  by  custom.  Between  the  two,  shar- 
ing the  advantages  of  individualism  and  of  col- 
lectivism alike  and  avoiding  the  evils  of  both, 
lies  that  form  of  political  and  moral  philosophy 
which,  for  lack  of  a  better  term,  may  be  called 
institutionalism.  This  philosophy  teaches  that 
the  individual  finds  his  completion  and  his  sat- 
isfaction  in  willing  membership  in  the  social 


374  DISCIPLINE  AND  TEE 

whole  with  all  the  obligations  that  such  mem- 
bership brings  as  to  human  service  and  as  to 
collective  responsibility. 

Institutionalism  finds  in  the  family,  in  the 
church,  in  the  state,  in  private  property,  in  sci- 
ence, in  literature,  and  in  the  fine  arts  those  in- 
stitutions and  undertakings  which  represent  the 
striving  of  human  personality  toward  the  goal 
of  self-expression  and  attainment.  No  one  of 
these  institutions  or  undertakings  is  static  or 
fixed,  but  each  one  of  them  reveals  in  history  a 
process  of  development  which  appears  to  be 
toward  greater  perfection  and  the  increasing 
satisfaction  of  man.  Where,  as  in  the  case  of 
the  church,  of  literature,  and  of  the  fine  arts, 
there  seem  to  be  exceptions  to  this  rule,  inas- 
much as  an  astounding  standard  of  perfection 
was  reached  in  the  early  stages  of  western  civ- 
ilization, there  is  much  food  for  reflection.  It 
may,  perhaps,  be  true  that  some  of  the  more 
subtle  and  imaginative  forms  of  human  expres- 
sion and  achievement  are  as  well  able  to  ap- 
proximate perfection  in  their  earliest  manifes- 
tations as  after  a  long  course  of  development. 
It  is  in  these  institutions  and  undertakings 
personality  that  man  finds  that  larger  education  which  life 
superimposes  upon  the  discipline  and  training 
of  the  school.     It  is  through  participation  in 


Discipline  and 


SOCIAL  AIM  OF  EDUCATION  375 

these  institutions  and  undertakings  and,  in  the 
case  of  exceptional  men,  through  contribution 
to  our  knowledge  of  them  or  through  further- 
ing their  development,  that  personality  finds 
its  highest  expression  and  its  fullest  satisfac- 
tion. A  person  is,  as  Kant  long  ago  pointed 
out,  not  a  means  to  an  end;  a  human  person 
is  an  end  in  himself.  The  enriching  of  one's 
own  personality  is  the  real  basis  for  human  ser- 
vice and  for  bearing  a  share  of  collective  respon- 
sibility. The  objective  goods  that  may  follow 
from  human  service  and  from  collective  action 
are,  of  course,  highly  important,  but  the  sub- 
jective results  in  the  minds  and  characters  of 
the  individuals  who  participate  in  them  are 
more  important  still. 

Autocracy  and  an  all-powerful  non-moral 
state  have  demonstrated  that  they  can  obtain 
and  manifest  a  marked  degree  of  national  effi- 
ciency. It  remains  for  democracy  to  prove 
that  it  can  do  the  same,  or  it  will  eventually 
succumb  before  a  more  effective  type  of  na- 
tional organization  in  which  true  civil  liberty 
is  unknown. 

The  difficulties  of  democracy  are  the  oppor-  Democracy 
tunities  of  education.1     It  is  for  the  educational  ^ciency 

'See  Butler,  True  and  False  Democracy  (New  York,  1907), 
p.  100. 


376  DISCIPLINE  AND  THE 

system  of  a  really  free  people  so  to  train  and 
discipline  its  children  that  their  contribution  to 
national  organization  and  national  effectiveness 
will  be  voluntary  and  generous,  not  prescribed 
and  forced. 

The  service  and  the  sacrifice  which  are  the 
results  of  a  self-imposed  limitation  are  worth 
many  times  the  service  and  the  sacrifice  that 
follow  prescription  and  compulsion.  The  mo- 
ment that  we  substitute  for  an  autonomous 
will,  a  will  that  is  self-directed,  an  heterono- 
mous  will,  a  will  that  is  directed  by  others,  we 
have  treated  the  human  being  not  as  a  person, 
but  as  a  thing;  we  have  substituted  mechanism 
for  life. 

The  early  training  and  discipline  of  the  child 
are  for  the  purpose  of  teaching  his  will  to  form 
itself,  to  direct  itself,  to  walk  alone.  Fortu- 
nately, the  child  is  not  asked  to  begin  his  life 
at  the  point  where  the  race  began,  but  he  is 
offered  through  the  family,  the  church,  and  the 
school  the  benefits  of  the  age-long  experience 
of  the  race  and  of  its  inherited  culture  and 
efficiency.  These  are  offered  him  not  as  rods 
for  chastisement  or  formulas  for  repression,  but 
rather  as  food  upon  which  to  grow  and  as  a 
ladder  upon  which  to  climb.  If  the  process  of 
training  and  discipline  has  been  wisely  ordered, 


SOCIAL  AIM  OF  EDUCATION  377 

the  child  will  come  to  the  end  of  his  formal 
training  not  only  with  keen  appreciation  of 
what  has  been  done  for  him,  but  with  eager 
anticipation  of  the  opportunity  that  lies  open 
before  him.  It  is  the  merest  sciolism  to  sup- 
pose that  each  child  can  or  should  construct  the 
world  anew  for  himself.  His  own  reactions,  his 
own  experiences,  his  own  appreciations,  his 
own  reflections  are  only  important  as  part  of  a 
process,  and  that  process  is  his  growing  into  an 
understanding  of  what  the  world  has  been  and 
is,  in  order  that  through  participation  in  it  he 
may  strive  to  alter  it  for  the  better. 

The  ideal  society  and  the  ideal  state  is  not  Education  and 
one  ruled  by  a  despot,  by  a  military  caste,  or 
by  a  controlling  oligarchy,  however  beneficent 
these  may  be,  or  however  efficiently  organized 
the  masses  whom  they  order  and  control.  The 
ideal  society  and  the  ideal  state  is  a  democracy 
in  which  every  man  and  every  woman  is  fitted 
to  be  free,  to  put  forth  the  best  possible  effort 
in  self-expression  through  participation  in  the 
great  human  institutions  and  undertakings 
that  constitute  civilization,  and  in  service  to 
others  like-minded  with  themselves.  This  is 
the  social  aim  of  a  soundly  conceived  education. 
To  its  accomplishment,  all  training,  all  disci- 
pline,  all  vocational  preparation,   all  scholar- 


the  ideal 
state 


378  SOCIAL  AIM  OF  EDUCATION 

ship  are  intended  to  lead.  If  they  do  not  ac- 
complish this,  they  are  futile.  "For  what  shall 
it  profit  a  man,  if  he  shall  gain  the  whole  world, 
and  lose  his  own  soul  ?" 


INDEX 


INDEX 


Adams,  C.  K.,  243 
Addison,  107 
Adolescence,  209,  214 
jEsop's  Fables,  140 
American  college,  00,  266 
Amiel,  47 
Anaxagoras,  67 
Apperception,  83 
Applied  science,  schools  of,  275 
Aquinas,  47,  56 
Aristotle,  49,  74,  76,  302 
Arnold,  Matthew,  59,  193,  229 
Atomic  view  of  society,  33 
Augustine,  St.,  56 
Azarias,  Brother,  58 

Bacon,  56,  115,  284,  286,  291,  296 

Baer,  von,  49 

Bateus,  286 

Beethoven,  57,  67 

Belief,  religious,  191 

Bentham,  74 

Berlin  School  Conference,  203 

Berlin  University,  261,  263,  278 

Bert,  Paul,  189 

Bessemer,  300 

Bible,  instruction  in,  37;  influence 
on  Lincoln's  style,  140;  in 
schools,  185;  a  sectarian  book? 
186;  ignorance  of,  199 

Bismarck,  64,  129,  222,  308 

Bonnet,  69 

Bopp,  54 

Boswell,  99 

Boyle,  67 

Br£al,  Michel,  244 

Brinton,  D.  G.,  192 

Browning,  Robert,  69 

Bruno,  49,  285 

Buckle,  66 

Bunyan,  140 

Bureau  of  Education,  230 

Burgerstein,  78 

Burgess,  John  W.,  327 


Cambridge  University,  261,  331 

Campanella,  286 

Carlyle,  67 

Cayley,  52 

Champollion,  53 

Character  and  the  moral  order, 
68 

Chicago  University,  270 

Christianity,  303 

Church,  and  state,  36;  an  edu- 
cational agency,  190 

Cicero,  240,  250 

Civic  instruction,  192 

Civilization,  25,  181;  Egyptian, 
53;  institutions  of,  311 

Colding,  66 

Coleridge,  308 

Collectivism,  373 

College,  Entrance  examinations, 
232;  distinguished  from  uni- 
versity, 261;  population,  267; 
local  influence  of,  358 

Columbia  University,  270,  273, 
33i,  362 

Columbus,  300 

Comenius,  100,  281 

Committee  of  Ten,  203,  215 

Comte,  51 

Condillac,  69 

Conduct,  standards  of,  136 

Constitution  of  the  U.  S.,  328 

Constructive  work,  instruction  in, 
253 

Cooley,  T.  M.,  333 

Copernicus,  285,  295 

Course  of  study,  broadening  of,  91 

Crime  and  education,  353 

Criticism,  educational,  165 

Culture,  meaning  of,  39,  40 

Cynics,  302 

Dante,  45,  54,  57,  155,  3" 
Darwin,  67,  74,  257,  300 
Davidson,  Thomas,  192 


38l 


382 


INDEX 


Democracy,  4,  64,  183-180,  224, 
342,  364,  368;  and  efficiency, 
375 

Demosthenes,  250 

Descartes,  23,  50,  52,  285,  296 

Differences  between  children,  159 

Diogenes,  302 

Discipline,  and  self-discipline,  126; 
in  the  kindergarten,  175;  of  sec- 
ondary instruction,  214;  and 
democracy,  370;  and  personal- 
ity, 374 

Drawing,  study  of,   253 

Du  Bellay,  Jacques,  103 

Du  Bois-Reymond,  67,  278 

Earle,  John,  106 

Economics,  study  of,  94 

Education,  as  a  science,  6,  75,  363; 
and  philosophy,  7,  55;  nomen- 
clature, 7;  and  infancy,  18,  38; 
length  of  time  required  for,  21; 
purpose  of,  41;  two  aspects  of, 
63;  as  spiritual  growth,  69; 
three  avenues  of  scientific  ap- 
proach to,  75;  how  to  plan, 
151,154;  as  a  government  func- 
tion, 316;  American,  three  fun- 
damental principles,  341;  a 
State  function,  347;  endow- 
ment in  the  U.  S.,  346;  and 
national  government,  346;  and 
crime,  353;  and  evolution,  22, 
73;  and  industry,  356;  private 
aid  to,  362 

Efficiency,  113,  221,  375 

Elective  system,  159,  218,  315 

Elementary  education,  definition 
of,  207,  230 

Elementary  instruction,  in  ad- 
vance in  applied  psychology,  79; 
too  early  for  vocational  training, 
122;  passage  from,  to  second- 
ary, 212 

Eliot,  Charles  W.,  234;  reports, 
362 

Emerson,  68,  308 

Energy,  5,  50,  53 

English  language,  104-107;  study 
of,  241 

Environment,  22,  141,  180,  181 

Epicureans,  283 

Erasmus,  59,  60,  99,  286 

Europe  in  1592,  284 

Evolution,  5,  14,  49;  and  educa- 
tion, 22,  73;    influence  of  the 


doctrine  of,  312;    and  individ- 
ualism, 314 
Eye  training,  121 

Family,  development  of,  19;  an 
educational  agency,  190 

Feuerbach,  191 

Fichte,  49,  306 

Fiske,  John,  5,  14,  19,  21,  45 

France,  University  of,  263 

Freedom,  new  spirit  of,  308 

French  language,  study  of,  25a 

French  Revolution,  305 

Freshman  class,  84 

Froebel,  61,  166,  167,  173,  293, 
295.  306,  307,  311,  315 

Froude,  63 

Fulda,  229 

Fulneck,  288 

Galileo,  46,  285 

Galle,  51 

Garfield,  321 

Gauss,  52 

Geer  de,  200 

Geography,  study  of,  244 

German  language,  study  of,  104, 

252 
German  universities,  261 
Gibbon,  128 
Gladstone,  74,  in,  308 
Goethe,  40,  54,  252,  300,  306,  308 
Gottingen  University,  261 
Government,  education  a  function 

of,  316;  control  of  American'ed- 

ucation,  323;  and  liberty,  326; 

and   the  state,  328;    national, 

and  education,  346 
Greek,  study  of,  92,  248;  culture, 

40 
Grimm,  54;  laws,  94 
Gymnasium,  231,  238,  250,  265, 

270 

Hall,  G.  Stanley,  79,  273 

Hallam,  291 

Hamilton,  Sir  Wm.,  57,  246 

Hand  and  eye  training,  121 

Harris,  W.  T.,  87,  209,  346,  362 

Hartlib,  289 

Hartwell,  E.  M.,  256 

Harvard  University,  270,  273, 331; 
entrance  examinations,  232;  in- 
come, 362 

Harvey,  285 

Hawthorne,  69 


INDEX 


383 


Hegel,  48,  4Q,  50,  166,  168,  igi, 

300,  306,  307,  311,  326 
Heidelberg  University,  261 
Helmholtz,  67 
Herbart,  83,  307,  308 
Herder,  40 

Higher  education,  270 
History,  study  of,  244 
Hofmann,  A.  W.,  278 
von  Hoist,  262,  271 
Homer,  54,  155,  311 
Hooker,  284 
Horace,  240,  250 
Humanism,  59;  and  science,  60 
Humanities,  28,  40,  62 
Huss,  John,  288 
Huxley,  67,  258 
Hyde,  Wm.  de  W.,  266 

Ibsen,  47 

Idea,  the,  147 

Illiteracy,  352 

Individual,  the,  33,  133,  144,  176, 

301;  in  educational  theory,  305; 

and  institutions  of  civilization, 

311 
Individualism,    excesses   of,    310; 

and  evolution,  314;  and  institu- 

tionalism,  373 
Industry  and  education,  356 
Infancy,  doctrine  of,  5;    meaning 

of,   13;    lengthening  period  of, 

14,  21;   and  education,  18,  38; 

a  factor  in  the  development  of 

the  family,  19 
Institutional   inheritance,    32-35; 

life,  76 
Institutionalism,  373 
Institutions  of   civilization,   311, 

373 
Interest,  83,  86 

James,  William,  113 

Jansen,  46 

Johns  Hopkins  University,   270, 

273,  278 
Johnson,  Samuel,  96,  99 
Jonson,  Ben,  284 
Joule,  66 
Julian,  Emperor,  283 

Kalamazoo  case,  333 

Kant,  8,  49,  50,  67,  108,  209,  215, 

306,  311,  375 
Keats,  105 
Kempis,  Thomas  a,  57 


Kepler,  Johann,  285 
Kindergarten,  165 
Kipling,  300 
Kultur,  39 

Lamarck,  49 

Lange,  66 

Language,  correct  use  of,  103, 136, 

138;  newspaper  English,  140 
Languages,  study  of,  28,  155,  211, 

252 
Latin,  study  of,  248 
Law,  schools  of,  276 
Leibniz,  50,  52,  74,  89 
Leipsic  University,  261 
Leisure,  labor  and,  119;  use  made 

of,  146 
Liberal  education,  124 
Liberty,  for  the  mind,  no;  and 

government,  326 
Life  of  mind,  5,  19;   life-process, 

education  part  of  the,  180;  and 

the  secondary  school,  257 
Lincoln,  139,  300;  his  English,  308 
Literature,  educational,  160,  361 
Lobachevsky,  52 
Locke,  69,  206,  293 
Logical  order,  313 
Luther,  285,  304 
Lycee,  231,  238 

Macaulay,  300 

Mandeville,  74 

Mann,  Horace,  reports,  361 

Manners,  107 

Manual  training,  254 

Martineau,  James,  191 

Massachusetts,  statistics  of  crime 

and  industry,  354 
Mathematics,  study  of,  152,  246 
Mayer,  66 

Medicine,  schools  of,  276 
Melanchthon,  103 
Michael  Angelo,  54 
Michelet,  288 
Mill,  J.  S.,  257 
Milton,  53,  61,  199,  289 
Mind,  life  of,  5;   liberty  for  the, 

no;  growth  of,  170 
Missouri  Supreme  Court,  opinion, 

335 
Modern  world,  46;    ideas,  Come- 

nius,  forerunner  of,  292 
Montaigne,  47,  285,  293,  304 
Moral  training,  32,  142,  367 
Mosso,  78 


384 


INDEX 


Mozart,  57 
Mulcaster,  103 
Miinsterberg,  272 
Murillo,  58 

Napoleon,  300 

National  Educational  Association, 

361 
Natural  sciences,  study  of,  247 
Nature-study,  25,  61,  155 
Newspaper  English,  140 
Newton,  52,  67,  285,  295 
Nordau,  47 

Orton,  Judge,  187 

Oxenstiern,  290 

Oxford  training,  126 

Oxford  University,  261,  263,  331 

xacSefoc,  40 

Parker,  F.  W.,  85 

Pater,  59 

Paulsen,  92,  241,  260,  271,  277 

Perry,  359 

Pestalozzi,  293,  306 

Petrarch,  59 

Petronius,  191 

Phidias,  54,  31  r 

Philosophy,  an  educational,  3;  and 
education,  7,  55;  and  life,  25; 
study  of,  no;  Faculty  of,  the 
centre  of  the  university,  278 

Physical  environment,  22;  train- 
ing, 77,  255 

Physiological  aspect  of  education, 

77 
Plato,   25,   49,   50,   56,   206,   240, 

250.  3n 
Play,  77 
Politics,  93 
Pre-Raphaelites,  47 
Preyer,  160 
Private  schools  and  colleges,  332; 

aid  to  education,  362;   schools, 

State  interference,  348 
Programme  of  study,   secondary 

school,  208,  237;   overcrowded, 

217;  college,  268 
Promotions,  156 
Protestantism,  183 
Psychological  aspect  of  education, 

79;  order,  313 

Rabelais,  285,  304 
Raphael,  54,  57,  67,  311 
Ratich  (or  Ratke),  286 


Rayleigh,  51 

Reading,  importance  of  good,  1 28 

Reed,  T.  B.,  161 

Reflection,  habit  of,  50,  108,  157 

Reflex  actions,  17 

Reinhold,  306 

Religious  inheritance,  35;  instruc- 
tion and  training,  177-200 

Renan,  no 

Research  and  teaching,  272 

Ribiere,  188 

Riemann,  52 

Rockefeller,  300 

Rollin,  258 

Roman  culture,  40;  law,  311 

Rousseau,  32,  35,  56,  76,  209,  293, 
306,  310,  31 5 

Royal  Commission  on  Secondary 
Education,  203,  206,  224 

Royce,  82 

Schelling,  61 

Schiller,  306 

Schopenhauer,  47 

Science,  65,  271;  and  humanism, 
60;  one  of  the  humanities,  62 

Scientific  study  of  education,  6, 
75;   inheritance,  26 

Secondary  education,  89;  extent 
of,  204;  definition  of,  205;  pas- 
sage to,  from  elementary,  212; 
disciplinary  functions  of,  214; 
field  of,  231;   aim  of,  236 

Secondary  school  and  college,  bar- 
rier between,  89;  programme, 
208,  237;  studies,  character- 
istics of,  211;  passage  on  to 
college,  216;  and  life,_257 

Secondary  teachers,  training,  235 

Secular  schools,  188 

Self-culture,  124;  mastery,  145; 
improvement,  146 

Selfishness  versus  standards,  142; 
distinguished  from  selfhood,  373 

Shakspere,  53,  57,  67, 155,  240,  284 

Shelley,  105 

Sigismund,  Prince,  291 

Sociological  aspect,  87 

Socrates,  33,  56,  67,  74,  109,  302 

Sophists,  33,  302 

Sophocles,  240,  250 

Spalding,  Bishop,  113 

Specialization,  danger  of,  280 

Speech,  bad  habits  of,  138 

Spencer,  Herbert,  48,  49,  56,  223, 
309 


INDEX 


335 


Spenser,  Edmund,  284 

Spinoza,  49 

Spirit,  knowledge  of  the  things  of 
the,  57 

Spiritual  environment,  22;  in- 
heritance, 24,  102;   growth,  69 

Standards,  of  value  in  knowledge, 
56;  the  setting  of,  134,  141;  of 
personal  conduct,  136;  versus 
selfishness,  142;  low,  of  pro- 
fessional and  technical  schools, 
276 

State,  and  the  church,  36;  and 
government,  328;  and  educa- 
tion, 347;  the  ideal,  377 

Statistics,  204,  262,  267,  316,  331, 
349-364 

Stoics,  302 

Sturm,  59,  285 

Sunday-school,  194 

Sylvester,  52 

System,  too  rigid,  a  cause  of  waste, 
151;  for  the  child,  156 


Tacitus,  250 

Tax-supported  education,  325; 
scope  of,  332;  a  public  service, 
336;  Daniel  Webster's  opinion 
of,  338 

Teachers,  limitations  of  experi- 
ence, 80;  attitude  toward  the 
scientific  study  of  education, 
94;  incompetent,  158;  better 
training,  235;  in  American  uni- 
versities, 272 

Technical  school  in  the  university, 
273 

Tennyson,  240 

Thirty  Years'  War,  288 

Thoroughness,  the  fetish  of,  157 


Thought,  primacy  of,  50,  54,  108, 

i57. 
Tolstoi,  47 
Tyndall,  66 

University  and  college,  distinction 
between,  261;  definition  of,  265, 
360;  unity  of,  277 

Urbanitas,  40 

Utilities,  the  higher,  65 

Utility  in  education,  64 

Vacations,  234 

Verner,  54;  laws,  94 

da  Vinci,  Leonardo,  57 

Virchow,  273 

Virgil,  73,  240 

Vives,  286 

Vocational  training,  119-129,  254; 
should  follow  elementary,  122; 
special  schools,  123;  prepara- 
tion, 125 

Wallace,  A.  R.,  14 

Warner,  Francis,  78,  160 

Waste  in  education,  151,  223 

Webster,  Daniel,  318,  355;  on  tax- 
ation for  public  instruction,  338 

Western  States,  education  in  the, 
79 

Whewell,  56,  66 

White,  R.  G.,  106 

Wieland,  306 

Will,  5.  50,  68 

William,  German  Emperor,  103 

Wisconsin  Supreme  Court  on  sec- 
tarian instruction,  186 

Wordsworth,  308 

Wundt,  55 

Zola,  47 


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